


A lover's story for a thousand years

by Eyemoonx657



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Age Changes, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Drama, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Love Triangles, M/M, Magic, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-07 14:34:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 56,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyemoonx657/pseuds/Eyemoonx657
Summary: they say that if you find your true love, you will recognize them through the multiple reincarnation of your life...But society changes and human's heart grows hungrier for affection with each passing moment...Through all these love feeding, could a soul remember the one it was meant to be with?...Maybe, but then again, maybe not...It was told that when the legend star appeared in the sky, the Rastin King wold be born, he was the one who was going to right the wrong and integrate God's field. On his journey to achieve that purpose, he would fall in love with the guardian of phoenix, but it was said that their love would set fire on earth and destroy the world...Could the so called 'soulmates' ever get to feel the bitter sweet taste of love again?





	1. The story

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by the elements of history, culture, myth and saga of a lot of countries. Nations with many famous tales such as Greek, Rome, Egypt, Persia, Korea, China, Franc and other European countries.
> 
> I tagged a lot of relationship because there's going to be some love triangles in there, not because they're going to fuck each other or something. There's going to be smut obviously, but not like horny teenagers.
> 
> Enjoy!

_Many years ago, it was told that when the legend star appeared  in the sky, the king of Rastin would be born, along with his birth, the four symbols of nature  would be awaken too. But before that, a long time ago, before human's existence, lived the Gods, heavenly creators and angels on earth. Together, they ruled the green planet and enforced regulations for its creators to live a life of integrity. The lord of heaven was the king among them. He had a son named Arien, who lived an isolated life in cave until one day a black_panther and a lioness took notice of his resident there. Since then, they would come to the cave everyday to pray Arien, soon the son of heaven became very fond of them, so one day he begged his father to bless them with a holy being and make them human, so he wouldn't be alone anymore. The lord of heaven decided to grant his son's wish and gave him the power to turn his animal prayers in to human beings. But there was a condition._

_The panther and the lioness were given twenty branches of saffron and some divine mugwort and Arien promised them that if they ate what he has given them for a hundred days and stayed in the cave and out of the sunlight, he would turn them in to humans. The panther and the lioness agreed to the terms and went back to the cave. But on the thirtieth day, the panther got too hungry and impatient to wait any longer and left the cave. But the lioness stayed and tolerated. On the 101th day, the lioness was transformed to a beautiful woman._

_After a while, the black_panther who has missed the son of heaven, returned to the cave to pray him again. The black creator was ready to beg for forgiveness and bear the punishment of its disobedience, but what the panther wasn't prepared for, was to find a tribe of humans, who respected lion, called the lion tribe. The lion tribe had a female leader. The panther was quite surprised to find its animal friend as an elegant woman there, the black creator was almost certain that the lioness would leave like the panther did too and never reach its greatness, but it was so very wrong. Not only the lion transformed to a human, but Arien had created other human beings, so the woman wouldn't be alone too. Jealousy was burning the animal's heart when it saw the glory of her creation, Arien's passionate looks toward her and other human's chance at being something better, way easier than the hard method it had to tolerate to reach greatness. The black creator felt betrayal, despair, lonely and mostly anger filling its being and left the son of heaven and its animal friend for the second time._

_Neither Arien nor the woman noticed the panther's small visit to the cave. soon the tribe stepped out of the cave and built their own village. The brave and beautiful woman, as their leader, took care of her people with compassion, helped them with amiability, protected them with courage and guided them wisely. When Arien looked a t her, his heart would be filled with happiness, so he chose a name for her. He called her Jacinda._

_Meanwhile. the black_panther's heart was burning with jealousy and utter rage. Its heart was getting warmer and warmer as it got more furious, to the point where its blood was burning with anger. One day, the panther was met with a snake. The hellish creator was banished from heaven because of the wicket sins it has performed at the God's present. They gave it a form of an ugly creator who wouldn't have the hands or the feet to make a sin anymore. But the evil creator had all the means and motives to spoil the world that the God's cherished very much, so that it could get it's revenge._

_When the hellish snake saw the indignant fuel in the panther's heart, it started hissing promises of power and being human with its venomous tongue, but it came with a prize. The snake promised of transforming the panther in to a human, give it the power of fire and gift it a tribe, but the black_panther had to eliminate and assimilate all God's creation. The panther, blinded with rage, accepted the offer and instantly its body went on fire. Flames of red and orange lights were coming from its heart and consuming the poor creator. The black_panther shouted and screamed until its felt the burnt through its soul. The animal was drowning in its own ashes and skin till the fire died down. At the very last rose a strong and beautiful woman from the ashes._

_As human population grew, Gods decided to leave the green planet and stay in heavens instead, except for Arien, He and the three Gods of nature stayed with mankind. Arien tasked each one with a sector to protect. White tiger, ruler of the west and guardian of the winds. Blue dragon, ruler of east and guardian of the clouds. Turtle snake, ruler of north and guardian of the rains. He himself remained with Jacinda and her tribe._

_The former panther, currently called Damiana, did as she vowed the hell creator. She and her blood thirsty tribe began to invade, kill, assassinate and rob the God's field and conquer other tribes. They wanted to rule the world and they almost accomplished that goal, but the lion tribe fought with the same intensity. Damiana would strike her igneous spear in human's flesh and Jacinda would shoot her sharp arrows at her enemy's chest. Arien, the son of heaven, could not bear to watch so many people getting hurt, so he decided to get involved._

_He confronted Damiana, the woman who controlled fire, but didn't remember her as the hungry and impatient panther who used to worship him. He removed the power of fire from her, sealed the fire in to an artifact called the heart of phoenix, he then gave it to Jacinda, the woman he fell in love with, because he was sure that she would protect her people with passion. And Jacinda became the guardian of south._

_Damiana got vulnerable while being naked of her powers, but that didn't stop her or her tribe from attacking another tribe. However, Damiana got fatally wounded during one battle and was on the edge of dying. Arien has found her lonely in a cave, bleeding to death from the severe wound. He healed her, stayed with her until she was fine again, then told her he knew of her true spirit and that he remembered his black_panther. Arien declared that she's welcome to join his people and left._

_After that event, Damiana developed feelings for Arien, she wanted to be his woman. So when the elderies in her tribe decided to arrange a war against Arien to get her powers back, Damiana killed them with her spear and ran toward the lion tribe. She wanted to be with the son of heaven._

_However, Arien has already fallen for Jacinda an when he caught her praying the lord of heaven for a child, he admitted his love toward her, unaware that Damiana was secretly watching his confession. History repeated. Once again, she had let her emotions for the son of heaven to take the better of her, to lead her to leave everyone and everything behind only to feel  betrayal, despair, lonely and utterly angry again._

_Damiana regained her strength and prepared her people for a war. She decided that if she wasn't going to be part of Arien's life, then no one else should. When she heard of Jacinda's pregnancy, she ordered an attack against the lion tribe. By the time they have arrived there, the baby was already born. Damiana kidnapped the baby while his mother was defeating the invaders and waited on the highest cliff._

_Damiana who was expecting Arien ot come for his child's rescue, was quite surprised to find Jacinda instead. As blood has stained on her white dress and was freshly dripping from between her feet, she begged Damiana to return her child. Damiana's glowing eyes caught the sight of the phoenix's heart, sitting gloriously on her neck. She asked Jacinda to trade the phoenix with her child, but she refused and said that Arien has give her the fire to protect her people and she wouldn't disobey the demand of the son of heaven. Damiana became furious and dropped her child from the cliff. As she proceeded to grab the artifact of fire, Damiana's hand burned with the flames of anger._

_Arien had managed to save the baby, but by the time that he has arrived at the top of the cliff, to show Jacinda that their child was alive, it was too late, Jacinda had lost control. She roared a scream and unleashed the hell fire as a black phoenix. The tartarian bird flew above the green planet and was dropping hellish bombs across the ground. Jacinda was burning the world in to ashes. She was consumed with the phoenix's heart, surrounding her with fiery flares and zeal, allowing nobody to come near her._

_Arien called the guardians, white tiger, blue dragon and the turtle snake, to stop the phoenix, but they were easily defeated as they were no match for her dark anger. Arien felt hopeless between choosing to save the love of his life and saving his people. But in the end, he was the son of heaven and his first priority came to his people. So he pulled his holy blade out, left with no choice, he pressed the sharp weapon in her heart, he couldn't fight a creator who appeared from hell, he wasn't its creator, only a God could kill its own creation._

_The death of Jacinda caused the black phoenix to seal in its symbol again. Only then the turtle, guardian of rain, was able to distinguish the fire and the world sank in water and rain for seventy day. Right after her death, Damiana committed suicide by jumping off the cliff, because she didn't have any reasons to live in that world anymore. Her powers now belonged to heavens and the man she loved was crying over another woman._

_Arien was once again left alone in the world with only his son and the three Gods. He sealed their powers into certain artifacts, like he did with the phoenix, and left them in the care of especial people. He told them that one day, when the legend star would appear in the sky, the Rastin king would be born, along with his birth, the four symbols of nature would awake too._

_And with that promise, Arien, the son of heaven, left the earth to join his father, the lord of heaven. But his child, born of a lioness and heavens, remained and founded the city we now call Gotham, and his majestic empire was begun._

_Many centuries later, the promised legend star shone across the sky for everyone all over the world to see it. As the heavenly day arrived, we, the spiritualist of the turtle snake's halidom, had enough fortunate by our sides to witness such a great and glorious day, like the rebirth of a son from heaven.According to the quotation, the arouse of the four symbols would be the same day as of the Rastin king's birth. So when the time entered, we, the spiritualist from starl village, Gotham's force,  Al Ghul's army and so many other people would ride out n the search for the symbols. We are considered lucky to have possessed the heavenly artifact of the turtle snake in our halidom, But the other three symbols made it quite difficult to seek._

_The blue dragon's symbol has aroused in Gotham's neighborhood, Bludhaven, but before anyone could lay a hand on it, King Drake infused his only son with the symbol._

_The white tigers has rumored to be with amazons. They were blacksmiths who used to live in a village called themyscira before it was ruthlessly assassinated by Al Ghul's ninjas. We managed to find a woman and her mother, who was fatally wounded. The woman's mother, Hippolytal, unfortunately deceased. The daughter, Diana, decided to go to Gotham and claimed that she and her mother were the only ones who managed to escape the attack. We had no choice but to give her the benefit of the doubts._

_As for the phoenix's heart_._

 

"Ouch! "

 _"_ You little sneaky piece of sh_. Augh. How many times have told you, you're not allowed here, huh?"

Roy brought a hand up to smack at the back of Jason's head again, but the little boy was quick enough to bolt and avoid the hit. He was still rubbing his head from where he has been smacked previously and it **really** hurt. Fucking Roy hand heavy fu_ freaking hands.

"But there are other kids here too. Why don't you guys just let **me** in?" Jason said quickly as Roy leaned o see the booklet he has been reading. His eyes grew wide when he saw what Jason has chosen to read.

"You little_hey! Come back here!"

Before he knew it, Jason was on the run, Gods knew where, this time he was in serious trouble, he has read the forbidden book after all, well, almost. He didn't get to finish because he was rudely interrupted. Talk about rudeness, he could hear his teacher complaining and threatening to kill _Jason the little shit_ from behind him, but didn't dare to take a glance to his back to see if he was following close. Seriously though! That man ha no filter on his mouth, he tried to get his constant swearing under control, like how he was trying really hard not to swear in front of Jason by just eliminating the 'shit' word, but the message would deliver anyway.

"Jason stop...Jason...You_ auuugh!"

"But i only wanted to read." Jason shouted to his front. He squeezed his eyes shut momentarily out of frustration.

"Let me give you the master's stick to read. It's...quite informative."

**"You're the worst teacher ever!"**

Jason ran out of the halidom toward the green jungle with so, so many tall trees, the best place to hide, but Roy finally reached him, grabbed the hem of his collar and pulled him back, Jason gave a surprised yield and struggled against his hold.

"Shit...damn it, i wasn't the only kid there." Jason desperately was trying to get free from his hold.

"Jason stop...don't make me_stop fighting kid!"

Jason kicked his feet in the air, his upper body was covered with strong hands. "Nooo, let me go."

"Fine kid...you asked for it."

Roy professionally pushed Jason's small body over his shoulder, regardless of the boy's constant protest and complaining.

"Jason i swear to heavens if you don't stop squirming, I'm going to walk you to the village like this."

"Then I'll start screaming on your ears till you go deaf." He emphasized by raising his voice next to Roy's head.

"What the actual fu_."

"And I'm gonna tell Oliver you swear in front of me too."

"What?" His voice got a little bit smooth. "Who said something bout Oliver?"

"Then...I'm gonna tell Dinah." Jason was trying to sound threatening, but in all honestly, he sounded like he was begging Roy not to tell anyone. He hoped that if he would bring out the blackmail material, he might have sounded convincing enough. It wasn't like he was going to tell anyone Roy swore at his present, he himself would be busted too. And besides, he kind of liked to see that side of Roy. Made Jason feel more honest with himself than the polite treatment he put for public.

"If you do that, then i won't teach you archery anymore."

Jason groaned loudly, started hitting his back with tiny fists, all along whimpering. "You're mean Roy...You're mean to me!"

"And who's fault is that?"

"I told you, there were some other kids there too. Emiko was there! I swear to heaven i saw her_"

"Emiko's a teenager. You're ten! There are some stuff there that a ten year old kid shouldn't know."

Roy shifted Jason on his shoulder to a better angle and started walking back to the village. At some point, Jason had stopped struggling and had his arms crossed against Roy's back.

"That's not fair!"

"If the world was supposed to be fair we wouldn't be waiting for the Rastin king to_."

"But we're not the only ones who's waiting for him, are we? There are others too, like Gothamites and Al Gh...I don't know what. Who are they? Why the hell is their name so **hard** to read? I mean, what does that even mean? And was that a G or a J? I was going to_...um, Roy?"

Roy has suddenly stopped moving, his muscles were tense and his grip on Jason became rigid. Was something happening from behind? Jason couldn't tell from his uncomfortable position on the ginger head's shoulder. Was it something he said? Did he just said something that should not have been said at loud? He was so screwed.

Roy slowly put Jason off of his back and carefully on the ground, but kept a firm hand on his shoulder in case the boy decided to dart out of his sight again. Jason thought about escaping, but when he saw that look on Roy's face, he found he couldn't even take one single step. Roy knelt in front of him to level with the dark haired boy. That close his expression was even more off than while standing. His mouth was slightly parted, his brows twisting to show concern. Was Roy...sacred?

"Jason did you...you...read the..." Roy sounded out of character, like he actually didn't to wanted to ask Jason about the booklet and was almost scared to know the answer he would get. It wasn't like Roy who would pick his nose in every single aspect of Jason's life, like he had no respect for privacy.

After a sigh he continued. "Did you read the 'lord of heaven' booklet?"

After a hesitation Jason nodded his head. There was no point in lying, Roy has already caught him red handed.

"The one which was written by the spiritualist Jade Nguyen?"

"I...Jade what?"

Roy bowed his head down, huffed deep and long, then stared at the confused boy in front of him and finally asked. "Where did you find the booklet?"

"I..."

"Jason you better not lie to me, or else Dinah is going to find out about this, and you do not want to get on her wrong side. Unless you want to kiss your combat training goodbye."

Jason scowled at his teacher. "I'm not a kid Roy. Stop treating me like one."

"Then stop acting like one." Roy was seriously getting impatient.

"You're the one throwing threats at me and **I** act like a kid?" Jason's voice grew louder.

Roy talked equally loud. "You were blackmailing me, about me swearing for like a minute ago, which by the way i had all the rights to do so. And now **I'm** a child for warning you of the consequence of your action?"

Jason rolled his eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, I now present you Roy Harper, the queen of dramas. He really wanted to just say that out loud, but managed for a simple. "Whatever."

When getting loud and handy didn't work, Roy tried a different tactic. He took his breathing under control and managed to get his composure together. When he talked next his voice was gentle.

"Jason, come on buddy. just answer the question."

"What question?" Jason said while still frowning.

"Where did you find the book?"

"What book?"

A forced smile appeared on Roy's face. "The lord of heaven."

"I don't know."

**"Jason!"**

The dark haired boy bite his lips to stop the laughter that was threatening to come out of his mouth. Roy was fun to mess with. He would get irritated easily and Jason seemed to just know exactly which buttons to push. But no matter how had he tried, he couldn't stop the grin from forming on his lips. Who could blame him? He was a ten year old kid who's teacher looked like he would die if Jason wasn't going to answer.

"I really don't! I found it on one of the desks."

"There's no way a book like that would be just laying around for people to grab. Those are important reports."

"It wasn't. I found it on the desk that Harley was sleeping one."

"Of fucking course she'd sleep at the library with important stuff around her." Roy muttered.

Suddenly, out of no where, a green goo was dropped on Roy's face, along with that came the sound of a hawk's whistle. It was the starl village's way for calling all the spiritualists and priests to gather for an important meeting. Except for the shitting part, obviously.

*********************

After Jason laughed his ass out, Roy promised him of a serious talk later and they both left for the halidom. People has come from all over the village and were waiting in the courtyard. The meeting must have been important to call a crowd like that. As soon as they stepped inside, Roy was snatched by Dinah and Jason was ordered to stay in the yard. He wandered around, But as usual, every time he tried to listen to the stories of Arien, the son of heaven, or to even do something as simple as to ask a question regarding that subject, people would avoid him and change the topic. He lived in a halidom, whose people were spiritualists of the turtle snake, one of Rastin king's guardian, but none of them would speak a word o him regarding the myth. Whenever he asked, they would just brush him off by saying ' _Jason, you're still too young for that_ ' '. But he knew that was bullshit, because even the kids much younger than him already knew, Harley right there was just telling the kids how Damiana fell in love with the son of heaven.

"You see, that poor little girly just fell heads over hills in madness love with Arien. I mean, she totally would! Our Arien was just sooo handsome and attractive that nobody could resist him. I'm telling ya all, he was down right hot!..."

Jason felt like the tale was somehow forbidden for him. Like everyone were trying not to let him know and that weirded him out. Jason had finally succeeded to read the myth that day and he saw nothing a ten year old wouldn't comprehend. It was the story of creation and everyone's right to know. It wasn't like it was consisted of an explicit report of phoenix guardian and Arien's love making, or Damiana's ruthless assassination, nothing too violence. At least that was what he thought.

The spiritualist Stephanie cleared the crowd off of the courtyard's center and pushed everyone to the corners to make room for halidom's main residents, which he was included too, but before he could do anything, Stephanie just threw her hands around him and stood them to one side, much to his disappointment, but it was to be expected. Oliver, Dinah, Barbara, Theodor, Jade, Roy and other main priests and spiritualists appeared wearing long, holy, white dresses. Stephanie would be there too if she wasn't busy babysitting him. Oliver placed the long stick he carries all the time, at the center of the courtyard, to Jason's surprise it didn't fall.

Oliver turned to look at everyone, he made sure to make eye contact with all of them, his voice was clear and audible for all to hear. "For two thousands years we have been waiting for the legend star to appear and brighten the sky with heavenly lights. For two thousand years we have trained the companions of Rastin king to serve the true monarch of earth. And i, Oliver Jonas Queen, the seventy one master of starl halidom, guardian of the turtle snake, had the honer to witness the day our ancestors has been waiting for. But unfortunately my quest has come to an end, and now i have the privilege to see the blessed guardian who will serve and protect the true Rastin king."

People started whispering around, Stephanie's hold on him became a little tight. Roy looked like he has been drained out of energy. In fact, every halidom residents looked like they had heard the worst news in their life. He was missing something. He could swear he saw a tear on Dinah's face. But right then he was wondering why Oliver was talking that way. It was weird.

Oliver turned to the stick, opened his arms out and said. "Let the selection begin."

"What's he_."

"Shhh." Jason tried to ask, but was cut off short by Stephanie's hand covering his mouth. But before he could protest, his attention was drawn to the people's sudden scream of horror. He looked through the scared crowd and saw some dark flares coming out of the stick. The wooden thing was shaking like a snake, black rays were floating in the air until it shaped a small ball. The dark circle stated flying, like how a cobra would crawl on the ground. The students and the spiritualists were all trying to hide to avoid getting hit. Jason watched as it flew above their heads only to stop in front of his teacher. That action brought him back to reality, he managed to free himself off of her grip while Stephanie was being distracted by the event occurring. He ran toward Roy, who looked terrified. Jason grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the flare's rage, but the dark ball would follow Roy again. Eventually they stopped running, Roy reached a hand out, the black ray seemed to calm down, it slowly floated till it sat on his teacher's hand. The dark rays shone and Oliver's stick appeared on Roy's hand again.

Silent filled the air, everyone were looking in awe at his ginger haired teacher, until Oliver stepped in with a wide smile on his lips and broke the silent. " The turtle snake has chosen its guardian. Congratulation master Roy Harper, for you have the honer to serve and protect the Rastin king." Then bowed to him, followed by others as well.

Jason didn't know how to feel about that, Roy himself still looked in shock, probably lingering on the fact that his mentor just called him master. But if there was one thing he was sure his teacher would be thinking about at that moment was 'Well, shit.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rastin actually means true and real. In the old Persia, they called their competence kings a Rastin king. It's actually a name too. So i thought, if there's going to be a king who would right the wrongs, who better than a king of Rastin?  
> And the story of the lion and the panther was inspired by a Korean myth where a bear turned in to a human.


	2. The promise

' Well, shit.'

That was the first thing that came to his mind after the whole ' great selection' was over. Then to add to his shock, his mentor, the only master he grew to know as his father figure, bowed and called him the new master. Jason was standing dumbfounded there and was looking at him like he grew another head. Honestly, that was how Roy felt himself too. Out of all the options the turtle snake could make, namely the ones who were way more qualified than him, it chose Roy as the guardian for a task which was more important than his life. The reality of the event hit him hard.

' Well shit indeed.'

**********************************

 

 

_"Roy, you have to go to Gotham." A heavy cough. "Rumors says ...that there's a boy there. He was born under the legend star. Jonathan Luther" Oliver let out a few more dry coughs. Even in his last breaths, he wouldn't stop his bullshit mentoring thing. Oliver, he was...that bastard was dying for fuck's sake._

_Roy grabbed one shaky hand and squeezed it as tight as he could. Ollie continued. "If he was the real Rastin king, then...you have to serve him."_

_"I will."_

_"Also, take care of my pretty bird. She'd kick your ass if you tried, but...promise you will anyway."_

_One single tear was dropped on their tangling hands, his life was getting over, but he just couldn't help being the stupid, sassy Oliver he was. He would miss his cheesy master dearly._

_"I promise." He managed to answer with his shaky voice._

_"And one more thing..." Ollie motioned him to get closer. Roy leaned forward and let him whisper on his ears. "Remember to keep your promise."_

_Roy turned to look at Jason. His little student, who was standing there, looking innocently at them with those wide blue eyes. The poor boy probably had no idea what was happening around him._

_Oliver's unstable voice caught his attention again. "Jason...when he grew up to be the guardian of fire ...when he unleashed the dark phoenix, you..." A heavy cough. "You have to kill him... before he'd burn the world again." Luckily, Jason was standing far enough not to get a glimmer of what they were talking about._

_"I..."_

_"Never forget that."  
_

_************************************_

 

Now, Roy was on his way to Gotham, riding his cart which was being pulled by a mule, while Oliver's last words would constantly echo through his mind.

"You've ever been to Gotham." Jason asked from behind.

And of course Jason would tag along on his journey too. They were stuck together after all. At east, that was what Jason liked to call them.

"Yep."

"What's it like in there?"

"Dark and gloomy."

"Cool."

Roy turned to give him a look. The dark haired boy just shrugged nonchalantly. He couldn't believe that kid was for real.

"Tell me again, why are you coming with me to Gotham?"

"Because if you're the guardian of the turtle snake, then who's gonna be **your** guardian?"

"You?"

"Duh!"

Roy chuckled and turned his attention to the road. "Alright then little guardian. But don't think for a second that'll help you get away with what you did."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You so do, you little sneaker piece of sh_."

"Relax teacher. No one's going to smack that red head of yours for swearing anymore. Just say whatever you want."

"The whole point of smacking me was that **you** wouldn't swear like me, not that i wasn't allowed or something."

"Well, obviously that didn't work."

"Yeah, obviously."

Comfortable silence filled the space, until Jason broke it again. "I just don't get it."

"What?"

"Why wouldn't anyone let me in the priest's library? Or, why wouldn't anyone tell me the story of the son of heaven? I mean, even the dogs in our village know about that. I feel like they're hiding something from me."

Roy suddenly felt his blood run cold. Did Jason knew? Has he read about how they have found him? Just how much did the boy managed to read? Calm down Roy, he told himself. It was probably nothing too serious, or else Jason would have demanded some answers by then.

Roy finally managed to put together an answer. "You're right."

" **They are?** " Jason shouted from behind.

"What? No! Not that. I meant about telling the myth. You're right about that."

"Oh." After a beat he added. "So does that mean you'll tell me the story?" Roy wanted to laugh at how enthusiastic Jason sounded.

"Haven't you already read it?"

"Not completely. You know, i was rudely interrupted, so."

Roy turned to glare at the brat. "You have some guts kid, you know, you should be grateful you have a teacher like me, it's by and large forbidden for ten year olds to read the stuff in that library. Its a strict rule and Dinah is even stricter. You're lucky you could get away with that." With the whole selection thing and Oliver's death, they didn't have a whole lot of time to worry about Jason's sneak peek at the forbidden stuff then. But now they had a long journey and a lot of free times ahead of them.

Jason scowled and crossed his arms out of frustration. "Whatever." He muttered.

Silence.

"So, you don't have any questions?" Roy asked.

"Hell yeah." Jason moved to sit next to him. Roy should have probably scowled at him for swearing, but who he to just do that? After all, Roy was to be blamed for that.

"Go ahead kid."

"Okay, first of all, why didn't Arien just turn the lioness and the panther in to humans with ease, just like he did with Jacinda's tribe. I mean, he created them after she was human, right?"

"Because Jacinda and Damiana were created as a lioness and a panther in the beginning. They were valued to be those animals. The lord of heaven wanted to testify their worth at being another creature. To see if they had what it too to be humans. After all, they were predatory animals. They wouldn't give up their nature that easily. But other humans were created differently. The Gods built us from clay and blew life at us and we became humans."

"Blew life?"

"The soul kid. They blew a soul to our body. That's why we believe, when someone dies, their soul would leave their body."

"Oh. that makes sense. But wait! Did you just say we were created out of clay? Does that mean we're NOT the children of Jacinda?"

"Only some of us. But it's not like you can detect if someone has lion or panther blood."

Jason looked confused and silly, his mouth was partly open, eyebrows were rose and blue eyes were wide. He looked kind of funny and cute, Roy couldn't help smiling.

"Okaaay. Well, next question. Where was Arien when Damiana attacked the lion tribe and kidnapped their baby? He could have avoid all of that from happening if he was there to stop her."

"I...I actually don't know. He was probably with his father doing...heavenly stuff. I don't know! It's not like i was there."

"But the story was pretty vivid when i read it. I mean, they even wrote the color of her flames. It's not like they were there either."

"It's just a myth Jason."

"You mean it's not real?"

"No, it is real, but that story has been said for two thousand years. I'm pretty sure they've retold it a million times."

Jason seemed to be zoning out, as he was quite for a while. Most likely processing the new information and noting not to trust whatever he heard or read instantly.

"So, what happened to their child? Who raised him?"

"The remained folks of the lion tribe. He then grew up and founded Gotham."

"Who are the Al...Al Gh_." He was having difficulty saying their name.

"Al Ghuls." Roy corrected for him.

"Yeah, that one."

Roy breathed out a sigh. He tried to calm himself by remembering that he was being a mentor. He had to tell his student everything he needed to know.

"They're an organization. Like us. But as we respect the turtle snake and serve the Rastin king, they respect the demon who has given Damiana the power of fire and transformed her to a human."

"Why'd they do that?"

"Well, because you know, they're an anti Rastin king of sort. You see, **we** have to help the Rastin king to find the four symbols, so he could sacrifice them at the holy cave, where Arien first resident. But Al Ghuls wants the power of heavens, so they could rule the world."

"That's bullshit. They're stupid o have waited this long for Rastin king. I mean, they could've conquered the world by now if they had a strong army."

"It's not that easy Jason. They're the descenders of the black_panther tribe. One of its folk has built a castle over the cave and now they live there. They call themselves ' Al Ghuls'."

"So they're the bad guys?"

"Yep."

Jason got quite again. He asked his next question with hesitation. "How...how are the guardians chosen?"

"The heavenly symbols pick their guardian."

"So, when they do...the previous keeper would...die?" He sounded sheepish while asking that. He was referring to Oliver, Roy's mentor and father figure, so he was trying to choose his words carefully.

A pause. "No."

"Then...what about..."

He breathed out a heavy sigh, gulped through the knot on his throat. The memory of his master's death was still fresh. If he focused enough, he could hear Dinah's cries of sadness over the decease of her lover. Roy forced himself to put together the words he wanted to say. He had to put up a strong face for his protege.

"Oliver wasn't exactly the guardian. None of the previous masters were. They just said that to people so no one would dare to steal the symbol. They said it to give people hope, that the true king would be born one day, and the fact that the turtle snake would choose a guardian every now and then, meant the Rastin king was real."

"But he's real. Why wouldn't they believe that?"

"Jason, it's a myth from two thousand years ago. There was no definite proof that it was true, except for the symbols. And they'd only awake, when the Rastin king would be born. So we had to keep people's hope alive somehow."

Jason was frowning then. "But that's false hope."

"It's called politic."

Roy kind of felt bad for talking about heavy stuff like that to a ten year old kid, but he didn't regret it. They had a long and dangerous path waiting for them in Gotham. And in a city like that, you had to be either outrageously rich or really smart to survive the shits it would throw your way. As his mentor, Roy saw it fit to familiarize Jason with the way things worked. Jason was a smart kid, he understood what was happening around him, he just ignored them or acted dumbly so he wouldn't get hurt in the process. Jason was a survivor. Roy raised him to be one. He made sure to teach everything he knew to him and keep him away from fire as much as possible.

"Then what happened to...to our master?"

"He..." Damn it Roy, get it together. He sighed. "He wasn't the true guardian, but he was a water priest. As the master, his heavenly duties were to deliver the power of the turtle snake to the chosen guardian, and when he has full fit his responsibilities...he'd go back to heavens. He would have nothing left in this world to do."

"But he had the priestess Dinah, the halidom, you guys. Didn't he wanted those stuff? To...be with her?" He asked the latter somehow sheepishly, with his head bowed down and seeming to be in deep thoughts.

"Of course he wanted that. More than anything, but you can't interfere with the heavens Jaybird."

"But that's not fair." He muttered. He seemed to be saying that a whole a lot lately.

"That's the whole point of the Rastin king's birth kid. He was send to right the wrong in the world." He nudged Jason's shoulder with his. "And we gotta help him with that."

That actually brought a smile on his student's lips. Gave him hope that he was going to be part of a greater good.

Jason said after a beat. "So, where did the phoenix's heart woke? I couldn't read that last part because a certain someone smacked the shit out of me."

"when you put it that way, i sound like an abusive jerk."

"Aren't you?" Jason had a teasing grin on his face.

"You little shit...i should just kick you out of the cart and let you walk the rest of the way."

"But you wouldn't." Jason looked utterly smug. "You know why? Because I'm awesome! Yo should be grateful to have a student like me."

"Grateful my ass. If you let me sleep properly for one night, then i might say I'm grateful."

Jason hit his arm playfully and ouch! That actually hurt. The kid was going to be strong, that was for sure.

"So, you didn't answer. What happened to the phoenix's heart."

"I..." He looked at Jason, watching him with curious, innocent blue eyes. He remembered he had to protect him. He promised that to him. So he did, what he thought was better for his student. "I don't know. We didn't find it." He lied.

*************************

 

**_Ten years ago_ **

**_The late night of the legend star's emersion_ **

_The sound of horse's hoot clicking seemed to be the only noise int he plain, like they were the only riders around there. Roy hoped that they weren't too late. He pushed his rein to make the animal run faster. The sun has nearly arisen and he couldn't see the phoenix's flames arose anymore. He hoped it wasn't something major._

_But they were fucking late. When they arrived at the eastern Gotham, it was burned to ashes. It seemed like nobody has survived the fire and the ones who did, most likely ran away. The house's wooden doors were broken, the corpses were laying everywhere with the most sever stabs, the clutter of blood was all over the ground._

_Roy felt his blood boil with anger. Those fucking murders just killed an entire nation, burned their houses, terrorized their wives and children just to get the phoenix's heart. Those bastards Al Ghul , they_._

_The faint sound of a cry had them all stopping their trek. They turned to look questionably at each other, like they were expecting the others to know something about the noise, but their unwitting faces showed that they were just as confused as the rest. They decided to investigate it. If there was a survivor, they had to save him or her._

_They followed the noise to a storehouse. As they walked further in the burned place, the scream got louder, but there was no trace of life otherwise. Where was that dude hiding?_

_Roy sighed out of frustration. It has been a long day and he was completely exhausted. That day has been the emersion of the legend star, the awakening of the four symbols and most importantly, the birth of Rastin king. The turtle snake spiritualists and priests has been riding their horses since morning to seek the heavenly symbols, well, the three remained ones, since they already possessed the turtle snake's stick. Its awakening has been both scary and amazing at the same time too. It was the first time that Roy had ever witnessed the power of heavens, therefore, he was terrified at the event, of the whole dark flares coming out of the holy stick and reaching the sky. It was truly a sight to hold forever. But all those magic and wonder were gone, when the Al Ghuls seemed to be always one step ahead of them. Those bastards seemed like, they've just gone and killed innocent people, destroyed villages and left a havoc behind. Not like they were looking for the symbols. Those fuckers, if he had his hands on them, he would stick an unholy stick up to each of their dirty fucking asses._

_If possible, the cry got even louder, yet it sounded to be coming from far, like someone was crying in a pit. He looked suspiciously at the pot he was leaning against. He slowly reached and opened the container and he was quite surprised from what he was looking at. There was a little baby in the pot and when the tad saw him, she began to cry some more. The baby's noise caught the attention of the others and soon they all were dangling from the pot to see the cub._

_"So that little kid was making all those noises." Oliver came beside him too._

_"It seems like it." Followed by Dinah._

_"But how did the baby survived the fire? I mean, a pot isn't gonna be enough to keep the smoke out." Roy couldn't help but to ask._

_"Maybe she's not from around and somebody dumped her here?"_

_"Harley, don't be stupid. Why would anyone dump a baby in a burned village? What's the point? Nobody would find her! If her family were poor, they could sell the kid. She looks like she's a few month old." Jade's unimpressed tone made it sound even scarier._

_"Jade, that's dark, even coming from you." Roy said to the girl, who was then glaring at him._

_"I simply speak the truth. Why would anyone leave her in a wrecked place?"_

_"Because she's **from** this village. But what i really wanna know, is how she's alive?" Roy looked at the crying baby who was trying to worm her way out of her blanket. They didn't know the baby's gender yet. They just used a presumption._

_Suddenly, something appeared on her forehead. That had all of them leaning closer. It was a mark or maybe a painting? It was of a bird with its wide wings and long neck and tail._

_It was a phoenix._

_The realization hit him hard. Roy was looking down the baby who has survived the fire, had a phoenix sign on her forehead and was founded on the village, where the phoenix's heart was awaken. Could she be the bender of fire? The...dark phoenix?_

_One look at the others showed that they all have reached the same conclusion as Roy have._

_****************************_

 

_**At the halidom** _

_"WHAT? You guys want to KILL her?"  Roy shouted at the council. He couldn't believe what his ears were hearing. Right from the minute they stepped in the halidom, Oliver said that they had to kill the baby, Was he fucking kidding?_

_"We won't have a choice. She's the phoenix. She'll grow up to be the dark phoenix and will burn the world again. We can't let that happen." Oliver answered casually. Like they were debating on the life of a criminal and not an infant._

_"What the fuck are you talking about? She's just a baby!" He held the blanket, which the little kid was sleeping on, tighter in his arms._

_"But, she'll grow up eventually. She was born as the dark phoenix, which means, she's meant to unleash the hell fire on earth. She's dangerous to all lives and we need to cut that threat off the earth."_

_"To what proof would you say that she's the dark one?"  
_

_His master **really** tried not to roll his eyes because of how obvious Roy was being, But he did it anyway. "Roy, you've been there when the phoenix sign appeared on her forehead. Why are you denying it?"_

_"I'm not denying anything. I saw the sign too, but it's not evidence enough that she's the dark one." Roy was too stubborn for that. He could fight for the baby's life all day._

_"Alright, you want her to grow up a bit, to see if she can use the power of fire and **then** kill her?"_

_"No! I don't wanna kill her later. I don't wanna kill her at all!"_

_"You're not going to be the one who'll do it."_

_"I...what? No! That's not what i meant! I meant that we don't ever have to kill her."_

_This time Dinah tried to interfere. "Roy, listen, there are some_."_

_Roy cut her short. "No. She's not the dark phoenix. I'm sure of it." He couldn't believe Dinah would agree to such a cruel act of murder. And the murder of a **baby!.**_

_"But we saw the sign_."_

_"Of the **Red** phoenix." Roy cut her off again._

_After he said that sentence, silence filled the air. The ginger haired boy made everyone to doubt what they have witnessed. He saw lingers of hope and tried to press to that for as much as he could. He didn't even know why he was protecting the baby he just met an hour ago. He really didn't. It simply felt wrong to kill her off like that, though a logic part of him was telling him that eliminating a threat, was the right thing to do. But as soon as he would look at the sleeping tad in his arms, he would see nothing except pure innocent and angel like face, and just like that, all the doubts would fade away._

_"I saw the red phoenix. I found her first. You guys probably just couldn't see because of the smoke and sand in your eyes while riding your horses, but i saw it crystal. It was the red one. She's one of the good guys."_

_He saw that look on his master's face. The one which said that he wanted to believe Roy with his every being. But Oliver was merely considering the consequences of keeping a threat to the world alive. He had to think of his people, that he wasn't delivering the universe's destruction to them. Roy understood where his master was coming from, but he thought that if he could save an innocent life, an orphan child, the possible guardian of phoenix, he would damn try his hardest._

_So he tried some more. "We can't kill her. What if it was me? What if i was the one who had a phoenix sign on his forehead? Would you have killed me too, without making sure i wasn't the good one?"_

_"Roy that's_."_

_"He's right."_

_Everyone turned to look at the spiritualist Barbara Gordon, the daughter of James Gordon, King Thomas's counselor and one of the turtle snake's faithful member. Out of all the people in that halidon, he had expected the least from **her** to agree with him. She was as much as strict as Dinah herself, in some cases even more and she would do **anything** and at any cost for what she saw as the right thing to do for people. Hearing her in agreement with him was a shock to everyone. Especially since it was regarding the subject of the dark phoenix._

_"I...yeah, I'm right." Roy felt slightly smug._

_"But not because of the reasons you gave. You're not as convincing as you think are kid." She said nonchalantly. Not even turning to give him a sparing. She made eye contact with everyone, who were gathering in the courtyard and started speaking. Roy didn't say anything, Babara was always right and if she said you were doing poorly at something, you got to know you sure were. So when she said Roy wasn't convincing enough, then he had better shut up and let her do the work._

_"I was among the rest of the priest, who has found her in that village. I saw the mark forming on her forehead too and it was without any question a phoenix. But Roy pointed out a good thing there. He asked that how a baby could survive that fire and smoke? The answer came as a sign on her head that she was the phoenix's guardian."_

_"You just had to ask." Suddenly, Harley shouted angrily at the ginger haired teenager out of blue._

_"At least I'm trying to help here!" Roy shouted back with the same fire._

_"Yeah? Well you didn't have to if you'd just SHUT YOUR MOUTH IN THE FIRST PLACE." She kept rising her tone._

_"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? How's the fact that she's the phoenix has anything to do with **me**?"_

_"Because you practically asked 'Hey, how did you fucking survived? Oh wait, what i meant to say was, are you the dark phoenix?' And here you got your answer. Now we have to KILL A BABY!"  Harley wasn't making any sense! With her hand gestures and the weird accent she got when she was angry. She was nuts and he wanted to tell that to her._

_So he did. "You're crazy! And no one's gonna kill her."_

_"You call ME crazy?YOU'RE the one who's fucking insane, messing with the HEAVENS." He couldn't believe his own ears. She saw him at fault all along and for the stupidest reason of them all, asking an innocent question._

_"I didn't_." He started to talk, but was cut off by a much stronger voice._

_"Both of you SHUT UP!" Dinah said with her authorized voice. "If i hear one more word coming out of your dirty mouths, I'm gonna kick both of your asses and I'm gonna feed you grass for a year till your filthy mouths comes out green. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"_

_"Yes master!" Roy and Harley both said in union. Dinah could and **did** things worse than that, so when she sang her threatening cry, everyone would obey her without hesitation._

_Dinah pointed toward Barbara, who was surprisingly calm and completely unaffected by his and Harley's argument. She cleared her throat and continued. "As i was saying, he pointed out something good. She didn't die in that fire nor she did not in the smoke and I'm pretty sure if you drop her in a volcano, she'd still be alive. Because she's the phoenix. The black one or the red one, it doesn't matter. We cannot kill her. She was chosen by the heavens and she was destined to live for a purpose. if we kill her, we'd be interfering with the heavens. Whoever she turns out to be will make no difference. She's been chosen as the guardian of fire and she **will** serve the Rastin king._

_"And I'm afraid Roy is quite right at some point. We didn't kill him as a child, and we'll never murder an innocent baby._

_"Water controls fire and turtle snake is the guardian of rain. I say, if we take her under our wings and teach her the right king to serve, we can avoid all those dramas, like the world being filled with water and fire."_

_She was quiet after that, let the new information to set in a bit. Barbara was right, as always, you couldn't kill a guardian. They were chosen by heavens and there to serve the Rastin king. As Harley would say '_ You're fucking insane for messing with the heavens _.'_

_Roy turned to give his most hopeful star at Oliver. He thought Barbara was quite persuasive, he just wished it sounded the same to his master too. He waited impatiently for his decision. Ollie looked thoughtfully at the infant in Roy's arms and finally sighed in defeat._

_But before Roy could do his victory dance, his master brought a hand up and stopped him with a serious expression on his face. "Hold up right there young man. I still have one condition."_

_"What is it? I'll do whatever you say." The teenage boy said enthusiastically. Suddenly, he just wondered how didn't the baby wake after all the loud noises they made. She must have really been tired. Oh, that poor thing! Would you look at that, he already cared for the little kid._

_"Barbara's right as usual, but...no one's still sure whether she is the dark phoenix or not. So i want you to promise that when the day arrives that she'd turn into that hell creature...you'll kill her."_

_"..."_

_Roy felt his body went paralyze._

_"If you promise that, then she'll get to live and you will be her guardian and teacher, but if you don't..."_

_Roy forced his eyes down at the tad in the white blanket, fisting her little fingers at his cloth, her chubby cheek pressing against his chest and she was breathing with her small pink mouth wide open. He reached his index finger to close it. Her skin was soft under his finger, he couldn't help but to stroke her skin gently there, careful not to disturb her sleep. She made a faint sound on her sleep._

_"Aw! She likes you!" He didn't care who said that, but he sure as hell would hold o that. She liked her possible future murderer, how awesome was that?_

_He finally forced the word out. "I promise."_

_**************************  
_

 

_**Later that day** _

_"Oh my God! She's really cute!"_

_"Can i feed her too?"_

_"Look at her cheeks! Makes you wanna bite them."_

_"Can i at least hold her while you feed her? Please!"_

_"No seriously! I wanna eat her alive!"_

_"Oh look at my little pudding_."_

_Roy groaned loudly. "Will you guys let him eat in peace? He had enough of the noises today."_

_They kept quiet for a split of second. Enough for Roy to feed the little kid another spoon of baby's food, which he made himself. But soon, the noises came attacking again._

_"What? HE? But that's a she!"_

_"Would you look at that! Roy Harper, the fifteen year old ginger head became a father. I wonder who the mother would be. What do you think Jade?"_

_"I think that if you keep that up, you'll need to watch the next meal you eat Steph, because there might be some green poisoning stuff in it."_

_"Green is a good color on you Jady girl. That ginger boy over there said so."_

_Over mentioning that, Roy blushed and the spoon was stopped in the air. "I..."_

_His eyes met the hazel shade of Jade's eyes. He tried to form a word, but he came as empty for vocabulary as the infant baby in his lap. He knew the reason though. He was a red haired guy, who had a thing for the girls who were out of his league. Unreachable, untouchable, beautiful but deadly and practically, the girls who were badass, but were a softy inside. Those were the qualities he liked about a girl and Jade had them all. Almost everyone knew about his little crush on her since the day he brought her to the halidom, and they wouldn't miss a chance to tease him about it, but every single time the two of them were brought up, she would just brush him aside and never paid them a mind. It was clear she didn't like_._

_The sound of the baby's protest brought him back to reality. The little kid was making grapy hands at the spoon in the air. He was also making those whiny noises that babies would make. He must have been really hungry after all. But whatever the reason was, he saved Roy from an awkward conversion and he was grateful for that. Roy pushed the spoon of food to his small mouth and his complaints were replaced with happy and satisfying sounds. That had all of them awing the kid._

_"You're one little demanding prince now, aren't you?" Roy cooed him. The baby made that sound again. He was so cute!_

_"Awe. She's adorable. I could watch her all day." This time, it was coming from Barbara, the baby's beautiful angle._

_"Would you guys stop calling him a **she?** This little guy here is a **He**." Roy said over cleaning the infant's mouth with a napkin. When he looked up, everyone were giving him questionably stares.  
_

_Stephanie was the one who broke the silent."A boy?...but the myth says the phoenix was a woman."_

_Glimmers of hope were shone in Roy's eyes at the mention of that. "Well, maybe he's not the phoenix after all." Maybe Roy never had to do as he promised to do._

_"Or maybe the phoenix has picked the reincarnation of a male form in this lifetime." Said Barbara, the voice of truth. Damn it, the truth sucked._

_"But that doesn't make any sense!" Stephanie's face twisted while saying that. "I mean, the son of heaven fell in love with Jacinda, the guardian of phoenix. Those two were faded to be together, so if this kid's the phoenix, then he's meant to fall in love with the Rastin king, but...but he's a...he's a boy. As far as I know, the king is also a boy too. How does that work?"_

_Roy was almost about to kiss the blond girl for being that curious, well almost, because she was proving his point that they shouldn't kill the baby at all."Maybe he's **really** not the one we're looking for." He tried to reason again, but Barbara, that nerd priestess had to keep insisting that the kid was a fire bender._

_"Orrr...he's meant to be Rastin's best buddy or perhaps a brother to him this time. Who knows what will happen in the future? Maybe our king will need a friend more than a lover."_

_"But that's...he..." Roy tried to argue, but noting came to his mind._

_"So you mean their **friendship** is going to be the trigger to unleash the dark phoenix?" Jade came to his rescue."I don't buy it. They're destined for each other , but this baby is a boy and he can't bear a child. I hate to say this, but i think Roy's right. Maybe we got the wrong kid."  
_

_The infant made another happy sound at the spoon coming to his mouth. He fisted his little fingers around the spoon's handler to push it further in his mouth. That caused the white food to expand all over his chubby cheeks._

_"Ah buddy! You made a mess there." Roy grabbed the napkin again to clean his mouth. The infant just didn't cooperate, he turned his head aside and whined._

_"Hey kiddo! Nobody likes a dirty child around here, so if you're gonna stay, you better let me keep you clean, boy."  
_

_"What are you going to call him?" Oliver sat beside him. There was a warm smile on his lips as he looked the baby in Roy's lap._

_"I...haven't decided on a name yet." He didn't have the face to look at his master back after the promise he made to him._

_"How about Conner?" Oliver suggested._

_"I..." He actually didn't think that was the right name for him. And besides, Conner was Oliver's favorite name. Roy wanted his master to save it for his own son._

_"What about Robin?" Stephanie suggested._

_"Nope. And if i wanted to choose a bird's name, I'd go for Jaybird."_

_"You can't call him THAT! His name would literally have a BIRD in it. Everyone will tease him about it."  
_

_"Then I'll omit the bird. Is Jay good enough?"_

_"Awww! Just like my mister j! They'd both have the same names!" Harley said with her usual enthusiasm._

_"Oh hell no! We're not calling an innocent baby over Harley's lunatic ex." Dinah interfered._

_Harley's golden eyebrows came down to form a scowl. She pouted her lips and said. "You're not the one who needs to like it. I think the baby should decide what name he should be given, isn't that right you cute little adorable creature?"_

_She then proceeded to scope the baby in her arms. She swirled and threw the baby in the air and caught him again. "Who's auntie Harley's favorite boy? Who's Harley's cutest little prince? That's right! It's you! It's you gorgeous! It's you little birdie!"_

_Soon the baby's sound of laughter filled the room as Harley kept on cooing him and throwing him in the air._

_"Hey Harl...I wouldn't do that..." Roy tried to warn her that he just fed him then, but she just ignored him._

_The crazy blondie swirled them both again. "You like it when auntie Harley spoil you, don't ya?" The answer came as another laughter. "Well, you gotta LOVE the name she chose for ya! She's gonna call you Jay. Just like her pudding mister J! You like that, don't ya? You like mister J_."_

_The kid just threw up his whole stomach on her face. Soon, she was covered in white baby goo all over her. Everyone went quite for a moment. They were looking in shocks at the event that just happened in front of them. Until the baby broke the silent with a shriek of giggles, he kept kicking his small feet in the air with pure glee and joy. His sound of happiness brought pleasant smiles and laughter to each of their faces. They hadn't been able to have a carefree second since the moment legend star had appeared in the sky, but that kid just made it all slip away with only the slightest of action. He hasn't been there for over a day yet, but he managed to charm his way through all of their hearts._

_Roy smiled and took the over joyed baby from her hands. "Sounds like the mention of your ex makes him throw up. I told you not to do that. He's just a baby! His body function isn't as strong as a grown up."_

_Harley brought a hand up to her face to wipe the goo away. "His vomit tastes like milk and cinnamon."_

_"Ewww!" They all said with union._

_She just gave a simple shrug. She didn't sound like she minded the vomit on her face that much."What? Just come here and smell it."_

_"I think we're good." Oliver answered._

_Roy managed to wash the kid's mouth with less complaining this time. They needed to properly wash him and find some clean clothes for him._

_"What do you think of Jason?" Barbara asked out of blue._

_"Huh?"_

_"Jason. It's a sort of combination of Con and Jay, But instead of C, we pronounce S on the name and we'd have Jason. Also, Jason is the male form of Jacinda."_

_The kid made another pleasant baby sound. His smile was so bright and beautiful._

_"You like that? You like Jason?" Roy asked the infant in his arms._

_Another set of giggles escaped his mouth. That was answer enough._

_"Alright then, we're gonna name you Jason."_

_' And I promise you Jason, I'm gonna protect you, no matter what' Roy promised the little kid in his arms.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you might say that Oliver's a bit out of character and that his mentor protege relationship with Roy is quite different. Trust me, I know that too, but imagine the only father figure you had would die in your arms. A guy would feel sentimental then, even if his mentor was the worst of them all.
> 
> There's going to be a lot of DC characters in this story, but i didn't tagged them because it would be a lot. They're background characters and actually play some rolls here and there, but they're not the main characters.  
> Like Barbara, Diana, Selina, Slade, Lois, Harley, Wally and a whole lot of characters.
> 
> I could always explain about this universe on the notes, make it easier for myself, but i won't do this. Because one, that's not how stories are told, two, it'd make it boring to read, i myself prefer to learn about a new world via the characters exploration through the events of the story. Three, it'd make it more exciting to get to know this universe slowly and along with the characters.
> 
> Your thoughts are so appreciated and every single criticize will help to improve the story.  
> If i had a mistake, please feel free to let me know of it.  
> I'll need your supports to continue and keep the inspiration alive!  
> Thanks for reading :)


	3. The broken sword

"Richard! Richard where are you boy?"

Bruce's shouting came from a near distance. Upon hearing his voice, Richard sat further on the thick branch to hide his figure from Bruce's sight.

"Richard!" He called his son again. He turned to take in his surrounding, he didn't as much as a slight looked despaired. Bruce looked as sharp and conscious as ever, which sometimes irritated him to his core. How his father managed to keep his composure, while holding one of his favorite swords, which was broken in to half thanks to his son, was beyond Richard. He had expected his father to have lost a bit of his temper by then, because of the fact that he broke his sword **and** ran away without explanation. Sue him, it was one Bruce's favorite weapons and he could be quite scary when it boiled down to important stuff. And this was pretty significant, right? But...why didn't he had that famous glare he always would send his way whenever he was being a brat? Wasn't his action bratty enough? Or maybe he was saving it for when he actually found Richard.

Suddenly, Bruce's head snapped to the spot he was hiding up on the tree. Damn, his intense stare was even scarier from the angle he was looking up at Richard. The boy got startled and was near falling down with his head, but luckily he caught himself before jumping to Bruce's arms. If it was any other day, he would do that without thinking two seconds about it, but right then, with Bruce's glare and his broken sword, it wasn't the wisest decision to make.

"Richard! What are you doing up there?"

He was reluctant to answer, but he saw no point in keeping quiet. Besides, Bruce would climb the tree to get him if he wasn't cooperating. He could and totally  **would** just do that if his son kept hiding any longer. But before he could say anything, Bruce cut him short.

"Get down here. Now!" And there was the threatening voice that said ' _If you don't do as i told you to, then I'm going to climb up there myself and get your stubborn butt down and trust me, you wouldn't want me to do that. '_

Richard whined. He knew he should have probably listened to his father, but no. The broken sword, Bruce's glare, Alfred's disappointed stare and the punishment that was coming his way, prevented his body to make a single move as to obey Bruce. He answered, but to his surprise, he sounded completely calm considering the situation. "No! I'm not leaving this tree."

"Don't make me come up there to get you."

Richard gave a shrug. Not that Bruce could see it from down there.

"You asked for it." Apparently, his nonchalant act caught the sharp eyes of his father. If he actually climbed up there, he was totally screwed.

"Wait! Augh! I swear it wasn't on purpose." But Bruce just ignored him and started climbing. "Wait! Bruce! Oh come on! It was an old sword, you have way new  and better ones. Just get another one. It was an accident! That sword would've gotten shattered anyway, I mean, what kind of weapon would just break with one strike to a stone? It was probably a hell of a stone,  **but** the sword was old and rusty. So it would break anyway, even if i hit it to a tree." He whispered. " Which means that i shouldn't have hit it to a stone in the first place, BUT IT WAS AN ACCIDENT BRUCE! COME ON! YOU GOTTA_."

Bruce has arrived to his spot on the tree and the first thing he did, was to place a hand on Richard's mouth to stop him from babbling any further.

"I'm not here because of the sword." Bruce sounded...calm?

Richard looked at the broken piece of metal on his other hand.

"I'm not mad because of the sword." Bruce repeated. The blue eyed boy raised his eyebrows questionably.

"Lilly?" He tried to speak through his father's firm hand on his mouth.

"Yes, really."

He tried to speak again, but all that came out of his mouth were stupid nonsense sounds. Bruce carefully put his hand away from his son's mouth.

Richard drew a deep breath and started talking nonstop again. "Then why were you shouting? Why are you hiding that sword? Why did you look mad at me? Did you tell Alfred about it? Is he going to make me eat **only** vegetables from now on? Are you going to ban me from going to the palace? Why is that_." 

Bruce put his hands, where it previously stopped him from babbling further. He sighed. There was a defeated expression on his handsome face. "Richard, son. Listen, I don't give a damn about that sword or any of the other weapons. You can break as much as swords as you like, i don't really care, and not because i can afford to buy them again, it's because they're not as important as you son."

Richard couldn't believe the word he was hearing. It wasn't important? So that was the reason to why he wasn't sending his scary glares toward him? Huh! And here he thought a big reprimand was coming his way. And he was totally not freaking out when Bruce said ' _Not as important as you son'_. Because he heard that sentence almost every single day from his father. Oh, who was he kidding? If it wasn't because of the hand on his mouth, his jaw would have been dropped by now.

Bruce continued on. "I'm not mad because of the sword. I'm not even mad at all." Richard raised one single eyebrow in confusion. "I'm sad and mostly, disappointed."

Oh no. He was using the disappointment element. He was trying to use that ground, because he  **knew** it was Richard's weak spot. Despairing his family. Failing to do as he was expected to do. Looking in the eye of disapproval.

He knew what was coming next, so he turned to look away. Anywhere but his father's eyes. He had rather to be punished, or at least being glared at than listen to Bruce declaring that his son has turned him down.

"You did something wrong, but instead of taking the blame, you ran away. You had to be brave or honest enough to own the guilt, but what did you do instead? You ran away from your problems. You tried to hide from the consequences." He placed his mouth away from Richard's mouth. "Was that the right thing to do?"

"Stop talking like a kid to me Bruce! If you want to punish me, then do it. Just stop with the talk." Yeah, he was the one at fault there and he probably should have kept quiet, but Bruce was pushing the wrong buttons and he has hit a nerve there.

Bruce's eyes narrowed. "I'm being serious here Richard. And it's not about the stupid sword. You break one, I'll replace it with a better one. It was an old sword, of course it'd shatter when you hit it to a big stone. But that's not of my concern. What really made me disappointed in you, was your action aftermath. You acted irresponsible."

"But you just said that you didn't care for the sword."

"I don't, but the point is that you ran from your problems. You didn't stand to face them. You escape from a broken sword today, you'll scram from a murder tomorrow. You hide from the consequences now, you'll conceal from responsibilities then.

"Richard, look at me." He reluctantly turned to look at his father. His scowl long gone and replaced with a warm smile. His eyes were gentle and his voice was filled with sympathy. "If you would've stayed and owned the mess you've done, all i would've done was to tell you to buy a new one for me. Not because i care about that stupid weapon, but because i want to teach you to take burden of your actions. So you'd learn whatever you do, is going to have outcome. I don't know what you saw in me that led you to flee instead of facing me like a man you should have been, but whatever the reason...i want you to forget it son.

"I want you to be brave and strong and think wisely. Whatever comes to your way, you gotta know that you're better than them. Don't let the thought of something scare you away. Never fear the unknown. Be caution about it, but never fear them. Fear can be your strongest weapon or it can be the weakness that'll get you killed. **You** will decide about that. Whether you'd allow it to control your actions, or you'd govern it at your will, to use it for your own benefit, will depend on you."

"You think i ran because of fear?"

"I'm telling you **not** to run because of fear. Life is going to throw a lot of terrifying difficulty at you, but you ought to confront them all with a brave face. Do you understand?"

Bruce was then quiet. He let his words to settle in.

"Yes."

"Good." He put a hand on Richard's shoulder to squeeze them for better measure. The blue eyed boy smiled. "Then you know what to do." His father pushed the broken sword to his hands.

Richard breathed out a defeated sigh. "Yes."

**************************

 

 

The plaza was crowed with people and noises as usual. Folks walking from one shop to another. Sellers shouting and calling for shoppers to purchase their stuff.

"Miss Rebeca has the freshest fruit in the kingdom."

"Ladies, come over if you want to look breathtaking, come over and check my jewelries."

"Cookies! Cookies everyone! Sweet delicious cookies!"

"East and west, Marry got them best."

But people's talking was the most interesting of the noises in the plaza.

"I'm telling you. Jackie's mother is a monster. She's so fucking terrifying!..."

"That bastard stink like shit all the time..."

"I heard the king's sick..."

"Mommy! Mommy! That man was looking at your back..."

"How much for that fabric?..."

"My husband went hunting last night, and he brought a Ghazal!"

"Shut up woman! If your husband could hunt an animal like that, you wouldn't be so scrawny..."

He kept wandering through the plaza while smiling like a fool. He actually felt a lot better after his little discussion with Bruce. Somehow, he managed to turn a reprimand in to a father and son discussion, giving him a life lesson through an accident. He never felt so good after a messed up accident, if anything, he was ready to make some troubles again just so he could see that side of Bruce one more time. His father was a reserved person and would close himself off from human interaction most of the time. But with Richard around, he seemed more...human. Richard's present would bring the man out of his lonely shell and show a man with equal human understanding and emotions. In a way, Richard made a mentor, a friend and a father out of Bruce. He felt utterly cocky by that, but he knew that as much as Bruce needed him to be human, Richard needed Bruce too. He gave the blue eyed boy purpose and Richard couldn't live without a goal. He liked his relationship with his father. There wasn't anyone in the world he'd rather depend on than Bruce.

"If you wanna know your future, come over to the great fortune teller in this whole kingdom! Roy Harper the great oracle! If you want your field to have fertility, come over to the great fortune teller! Roy Harper people of Gotham!"

A boy shouted, who seemed to be the same age as Richard. Oh well, that was new. He has been raised in that city and knew the plaza like the back of his hand, but it was the first time he has ever met that boy, who was advertising for something as stupid as prophecy. But he came to the right place to do so. It was Gotham after all. Whoever lived in that city was either mentally ill or stupid, save the ones who has picked an obsession with that city, namely the ones like Bruce. So that boy came to the right place to earn money that way.

"If you wanna know your children's fate, come over to the great Roy Harper people of Gotham."

Was he the Roy Harper himself? Or he was advertising for the guy?

"Hey, you!" The aforesaid boy said while leaning closer to a soldier, who was eating lunch at a tavern. "There's something on your shoulder."

"What? Where?" The soldier tried to look at his shoulder, to search for the thing the boy mentioned.

"Right there!" He pointed toward a spot on his right shoulder. "Can't you see it?"

Richard should have just gone on his own way. He should have just ignored him, much like how he ignored the rest of the things that happened in the plaza, but he was curious to know what the boy was going to do. He was new after all. So he stopped at his trek and watched the event taking place. They were at a safe distance to be heard clear.

"I...no, where is it?" The soldier was starting to look scared.

"Don't worry bro! It's just a devil's snake shaping on your right shoulder."

"WHAT?" The poor man abruptly stood up.

"Yeah dude. It's a devil. And a snake one. Those are the most dangerous ones. Only appears when you have dirty fantasy of another woman...you're married, right?"

"What...I...you...she." The man was startled, taken aback by the sudden revelation the boy made. The aforesaid boy just grinned and sat on the man's place. "How did you know?"

The boy gave a shrug. "The snake devil bro."

The man just knelt before him. "What do i do?"

"Well, i know a guy who could solve that little problem of yours,but..." The boy's grin got wider. He waited for a good measure of time.

"Oh! Right!" The soldier read the message and gave him two coins. "Just please tell me where to find that man." Richard couldn't believe his eyes. He was watching a grown up man, being fooled by a kid, who looked to be ten years old or something. He knew the people of that city were out of their minds, but that expanse of silliness was just impossible. Apparently it wasn't. Either that soldier had nuts instead of brain in his head, or that boy was too smart. Maybe both?

"Listen, I've seen a lot of men like you. You should have kept your pervert mind clean bro. But now it's too late. The snake has appeared on your shoulder. I can see it, because I'm a priest."

"Really? Can you help me then?"

"Nah. But I can tell you what will happen if you don't get rid of it."

"What? please tell me!" Oh God, that man looked despaired.

"Dude, I didn't study so hard to work for free. Show me what you got." Th boy poured some wine to a pottery glass.

The soldier pushed two more coins on his hand. The aforesaid boy drank the whole glass and twisted his face. Most likely because of the sour taste. Richard might have sneaked a sip of Bruce's old wine once. It wasn't the most pleasant taste of all. Richard probably had looked the same as the boy did.

The dark haired boy huffed and put the glass down. "If the snake stays on your shoulder, then It'll grow in to a shape. And you'll have a snake devil as a pet to share food with. But i gotta warn you, you can't feed normal food to it. You'll have to feed it human's brain or else..." A dramatic silence. Suddenly, he punched the table hard enough to make the plates shake. "IT'LL EAT YOUR OWN BRAIN."

The soldier yelled! He actually freaking yelled like a damsel! The poor man was terrified. Couldn't he see the trick that it was just bluff and bullshit? He was a grown up man with a mustache for heaven's sake! He felt sorry for the near crying man and thought about interfering, but the boy continued.

"But don't worry. You see that red haired dude over there, sitting next to that fabric vendor?"

The man nodded while slightly shaking. The hell?

"He knows what to do. He's the great fortune teller, Roy Harper. And he's also a ghost hunter too. He taught me everything I know. Go to him um...twice a month...no, no, three...yeah, three times a month, and he'll get you rid of that hellish creature."

The soldier shook his shoulder out of disgusted and then proceeded to run toward the fortune teller, but was stopped by the boy calling him.

"Hey wait! Remember to tell Roy everything i said or else he won't be able to detect the snake exactly."

The man bowed his head. "Thank you. Thank you." And ran off toward the red haired fortune teller.

When the soldier was far enough, the boy started laughing. He poured some more wine and started to eat the man's remaining food, all the while chuckling to himself. He totally should have. It was pretty funny how stupid a person could be. Now he has earned four coins, delivered a constant costumer to that 'Roy Harper' and found free food and wine. That was wrong and what he did to the poor man was stealing, but in Gotham, it was called surviving. He knew where the boy's action were coming from. He was a Gothamite too.

"Are you gonna just stand there and stare at me, or you're gonna do something?" The boy said after taking another gulp, straight from the jug. Richard was taken aback slightly. He thought he was being stealthy and that the boy was more occupied to notice him watching the event. Guess the boy was sharper than he looked.

Richard slowly walked toward him. "Aren't you too young to be drinking wine?"

"Aren't you too old to eavesdrop on people's business?" He said without even turning to look at Richard.

"You call that a business, but what i saw was just a kid tricking some poor guy with nightmares."

He scowled at him. "Hey! First of all, I'm not a kid. You look hardly a few months older than me. Second of all, it's non of your business. That man deserved it."

Such a brat! "How could you tell if he deserved it or not? Oh, let me guess, just like the way you saw a **snake** on his shoulder, right?" He was irritated by those, who manipulated the stupid to their use and reasoned it with ' _They're stupid and it's not our fault they fall for our trap'_. Richard understood the concept of ' _A guy's gotta eat'_ , but it was still heartbreaking to witness.

The boy grabbed the jug and stood up. "Fuck off. You can't judge me." With that being said, he walked pass Richard.

But Richard wasn't quite done with that new boy, so he followed him. He tried to make a better impression this time. He had started on the wrong stage. "I wasn't trying to." He caught up to that boy. "Just...thought it wasn't right to trick him like that."

"Oh yeah?" He didn't stop his trek, nor did he turned to look at Richard. "If you're such a good boy, then why didn't you stop me from fooling that soldier? Huh?"

"I..." He actually had no words to say.

"Guess you're not such a good boy after all." The dark haired boy said with a chuckle. "But in all seriousness, you Gothamites are nuts. I used to think there couldn't be anyone crazier than Harley, but comparing to **you** guys, she's a genius! And that's saying something, because she's lost it years ago." He then laughed at his own joke.

"I..." He couldn't believe he was going to say that, but the boy was actually right. But he prevented himself from admitting it out loud. He was from Gotham after all, he had to save some dignity, even though that city was a shit hole. Oh crap. Not with the swearing thing again. He would interact **one** minute with someone, and his tongue would constantly roll with swearing.

"Why are you following me kid?" The boy brought him out of his thoughts. He took another sip from his jug and when he talked next, his voice was drained due to the sour taste of wine. "You wanna know your fate too?"

"Seriously?" He gave an unimpressed expression. Was that boy for real?

The boy just shrugged his shoulders. "Why no? Don't you wanna know your future?"

"Do I look like the one who'll buy those bullshit to you?" He watched the whole event taking place just a minute ago. And he was the one, who called him off about his tricks. Was he seriously asking if he wanted a prophecy? Just how stupid did he think the people of Gotham were?

"In a city like this, you'll never know. It was worth a shot anyway." His eyes caught the fabric in Richard's hand. "What's that?"

He looked at the fabric, which contained the broken sword. "It's a sword."

"Why keep it there?"

He was reluctant to tell the boy about his little accident. He just met the guy and he didn't seem like the most trustworthy boy in Gotham. Why was even talking to him in the first place? He looked thoroughly at the boy next to him, took in his appearance. He looked fairy normal, with khaki colored pants, cotton shirt along with a navy blue waistcoat over it, same navy clothes wrapped around his wrist. A regular clothing around that city. Figuratively, he was the same height as Richard himself, but he seemed to somehow weight heavier than him. He couldn't tell exactly through the layer of clothing, but with the heavy steps and the rigid way he walked, you could have the same speculation. Maybe Richard was too observing, at least that was what Bruce told him. He searched further in the boy's facial feature. He had jet black hair, intoxicated blue eyes, which he guessed had nothing to do with being drunk and that it was the boy's own form of eyes, groggy. To be honest, it was a good look on his face, made a serious expression on him. Maybe that was how people bought his bluff. His looks wasn't of a ten year old kid, with his thick eyebrows furrowing down, an ecstatic vision, a rough jawline, which promised of a handsome face one day, faint freckles, which were spread on his nose. They wouldn't be even visible if the boy wasn't so pale. All in all, he had a drastic gesture, a strong figure and surely a hell of language.

"Yo! I know I'm hot and all, but if you're not going to answer, then quit staring. It's weird." He then murmured. "Not that the rest of this shit hole isn't already."

Richard slapped himself mentally for zoning off on the boy like that. He was going to contemplate on trusting a kid he just met, but was drifted to his appearance and stared at him like a creep for God knew how long.

"Sorry, i was just..." He sighed. What was the worst that could happen if he just told the boy about a broken sword? He would steal it? No, what use did a wrecked weapon have. He would kill him with it and took his money? Nope, that didn't sound like him. So, what was he even lingering about? Perhaps it was the embarrassment? He broke a sword after all. "It was an old sword. It was from our ancestors and i just really wanted to use it, you know. It was always there on the wall and kind of rusty. So I thought, it was a useless weapon, Bruce wasn't going to mind if I used it once, right? So I grabbed it and...I might have hit it really hard to a stone and it just broke...but I'm telling you, it was a hell of a stone and_."

The boy burst out of laughter, slipping some wine out of his mouth in the process.

Richard couldn't help the smile forming on his own lips. "It wasn't that bad."

The boy tried to talk through his laughter. "No...it was... **terrible**! I mean... what the fuck did you think... was gonna happen? Huh?...You'd kill the stone?" He laughed some more, swaying the jug in his hand. Most of his laughter was probably due to the wine kicking in, but you had to admit, it was pretty thoughtless and funny.

When the laughing stopped, the boy straightened his body and took a deep breath to his lunges. He turned to look at Richard, with a smile remaining on his face. "Come on you moron. Follow me." He then started walking.

"Where?"

He answered without stopping his trek. So Richard had to follow up to him. "To Gotham's best blacksmith."

"But...i was going to Joe's."

"Joe's a fucking fraud. You'll just be throwing your money away. I'm telling you, Diana is awesome! She's like the Goddess of metal. The best iron bender in this whole kingdom."

"I haven't heard of her."

"Because she doesn't do work for the knuckle heads in this city. She works for the Wayne palace and makes the warrior's sword and all sort of weapon." He talked so fondly of that woman, Diana. Did he work for her as well as that fortune teller Roy Harper? Was he some sort of advertiser for the shoppers? That boy was new and pretty smart, so that was presumably the way he earned a living. What could possibly a kid his age have done that paid him enough not to die anyway?

But there was only one thing bothering him.

"How do I know you're not fooling me like that soldier?"

The boy rolled his eyes, his voice filled with annoyance. "I didn't fool him."

"Oh, so you saw a devil on his shoulder?" He said in a sarcastic way.

The dark haired boy groaned. "Would you stop with the snake and soldier? He deserved it, okay?"

"How do you know? You aren't_."

The boy cut him short. He stopped walking for the favor of looking straight in Richard's eyes.

"Because i just KNOW! You think I didn't know, what a rat that man was when i approached him? When i told him he's a pervert? That bastard steals the money his wife would sweats to earn and spend it on gambling or going to brothel, while his kids and wife have to boil bones to eat. If I was a little older, I would've kicked his useless ass for doing that to his family. But I CAN'T. You know What I CAN do? I can make him spend his money on a divination than his pervert mind, so that maybe, just MAYBE, he'll quit cheating on his wife and...and...I don't know why I'm telling all of this to you. You're just a dubious freak, who judges people on the first look." With that being said, he walked away.

Richard couldn't do anything as to stand and stare dumbly at his spot. He tried to process the new information. The soldier was just as dirty as he looked. He deserved every awful thing that was thrown at him. Richard felt like a fool for thinking he was being manipulated. That boy thought everything through. But how did he knew about them all? He...

He was getting too far. Richard ran up to him before he would lose the sight of him. "Hey! Wait! I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean to sound critiquing." He finally came up to him, but the boy wouldn't slow his pace. "Hey, listen...I was just curious to know why you thought he deserved it. I was watching everything from an outsider's point and from what i could see, you were tricking a poor man. How was I supposed to know he was a jerk?"

He abruptly stopped, a frown on his face and said. "Why are you following me around?"

'Because you seem cool, my age and sensible enough out of the lunatic people in this city. So I kind of wished I could make friends with you?'. He wanted to say them, but he managed for something else. He didn't want to scare the boy away with his weirdness.

"Because you said you knew the best blacksmith in the whole kingdom. And I might have just broken a sword, so..." He said instead.

The boy gave him an unimpressed look and crossed his arms against his chest. It was funny how he could swing from one mood to another. One moment he was all laughter and talking enthusiastic about the blacksmith Diana, suddenly he would get all offended and storm out. Some temper the boy had.

The aforementioned boy kept quiet, waiting for Richard to go on. Richard finally said. "I'm sorry."

"And?"

"And you were right. I was being judging. But you gotta cut me some slack, I didn't know anything."

he boy didn't respond. That was answer enough for Richard to go to his own way.

"Alright. You want me gone. Message received." He sighed. " Guess I'll just go throw my money at Joe's."

He went to get out of the boy's sight. He knew where he was unwanted. He hasn't walked far until a hand snatched his arm to turn him around. The boy pointed to his back and said. "Diana's that way."

Richard grinned, but didn't say anything. Some sort of a mood swing the boy had.

He followed him to the direction he pointed. Richard seriously wanted to ask that how he knew all those stuff about the soldier though, but he kept quiet. Figured it would just make him angry again. So he settled for another thing. "How do you now that woman is the best blacksmith in Gotham. You seem pretty new to Gotham's craziness."

"I tend to make it my business to know everything in this city. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. She's just as good with iron as the phoenix's with fire."

"If you say so."

After a pause. "By the way, I'm Jason."

"I'm..." He remembered his connection to the palace and Bruce's words about keeping it a secret. "I'm Dick."

Jason sneered. "Figured."

"No. I mean, my name is Dick."

Jason just laughed some more. "I know. It suits you."

He was going to hear a lot of penis jokes. He could just see that coming.

**********************

 

"What is that trash?" Blacksmith Diana said, looking with disgust at the sword in his hand.

"Um...It's an old sword." Dick answered.

"More like an ancient one."

Jason sneered beside him. He ignored him.

"But could you fix it?"

"I'm not touching that excuse of a weapon."

"Please! I've been told that you're a Goddess with metal. Please fix it."

Diana raised an eyebrow at Jason. He just smiled sheepish at her. "Well, the Goddess part was an exaggeration, but I could say I'm pretty good at what I do." She sounded amused.

"So, can you help me."

She turned a cold stare at him. "Why would I do such an in vain task? The weapon will break again. You won't be able to put it to good use."

"Actually, that's the odd part. I'm not gonna to put it to good use. I'm not gonna put it to any use at all."

She raised one eyebrow again. Jason was grinning beside him, like he purposely has brought him there to suffer under her intense stare.

"I um...it was actually a decoration and I sort of broke it..."

"You broke a sword, which was being used as a decoration." When she put it that way, it seemed as if he was playing with that weapon. Well, he kind of was, but not in a way she thought.

"Well, it wasn't always used as a decoration. My grand, grandfather used to do battle with it."

"And no wonder he's deceased."

Jason sneered again. Richard looked at him. He would be wary at everything that came out of Dick's mouth, except his name, he just teased him about it. But he would laugh and grin to every word that Diana would say. It was almost like he had a crush on her. Huh! Cute. He'll remember to bring that up the next time he teased him about his name.

"I'd appreciated it if you'd help me ma'am. I made a promise to my father and I really don't want to let him down. I know this might look ridiculous to you, but it's not just about the sword. I made a mistake and now i have to take responsibility of my action. If I go back empty handed, my father would be quite disappointed in me, not because I broke a sword, but because i wasn't able to make amends of the wrong I did. If I ignore a broken sword today, I'll ignore rubbery or murder in the future. So please ma'am...I'd really be grateful if you would put some time on my weapon. I know that you have a lot on your plate, being the best blacksmith in Gotham, and you don't have time to spare on my excuse of a mistake, but I **really** need your assistance on this issue"

"You'll help a boy to make his father proud of him." He added after a bit.

When simple talking wouldn't work to your wish, then you had to bring the sentimental elements out. They were the most effective method for then. Because even the coldest of hearts, couldn't resist an adorable ten year old kid, who wanted to make his father happy. Especially when good morality was being mixed within it.

Diana looked considered, Jason was looking in disbelieve at him, a blond lady's jaw was literally hitting the ground in the background there and there was an awkward silence stretching between them. He was only hoping he touched Diana in the heart. That would normally work for ordinary people, but she didn't look the slightest like the women he knew. She was really tall and had the body structure of a warrior. Her dress was dirty with stains of smoke and burnt holes. She was wearing a pear of leather boots, which looked pretty familiar. He looked at Jason's boot's and saw the resembling there. She must have been close to Jason to have given a set of boots just like hers to him. But anyway, back to Diana. Her feature was rigid and strong and her gaze was intense. But all in all, she was beautiful. Like  **very** beautiful. That was mainly the reason he couldn't make eye contact with her more than a minute. Her eyes were icy blue, hair long and colored raven black with thick curls up to her shoulder, lush eyebrows, perfect lips and jawline. Her voice held the authority of a commander, husky and so man like. He guessed the amount of shouting she had to do through the loud noises of furnace, had done that to her. It was easy to picture her in a battle field, with a sword and a shield. He just bet she would fight gracefully. Suddenly, he realized where Jason's crush was coming from. How could you not fall in love with that woman? Has Bruce seen her yet? If not, then Dick hopped he would eventually.

Diana brought her hand out. He just stared dumbly at her hand.

"The sword." She said.

Oh, right. He handed her the weapon.

"Come and get it in two weeks. I'm pretty busy lately."

It actually worked! "Thank you ma'am. I really appreciate the time you put on my excuse of a weapon."

She turned to leave, but before that, she looked at Jason and said. "I'm glad you made a friend Jason."

"WHAT? Did you honestly buy his bullshit?" Why did he looked so surprised?

"He's telling the truth. I can see it in his eyes." And she left.

"WHAT?" Jason said after her.

"Oooh! Jason! You made a friend." The shocked blond lady in the background came and threw her hand over Jason's shoulder to give him a half hug. She then proceeded to look at Richard up and down. Her gaze made him uncomfortable. she was staring at him from head to toe with a predatory look. "And he's cute! Auntie Harley approves, Jaybird."

Jaybird?

Jason struggled to push himself out of her hold. "I don't care! I just met him today." But his effort was in vain, as her grip became tighter.

"And you fished a good kid." She brought one hand out. "I'm Harley Quin. Nice to meet ya!"

Dick squeezed her hand. "Me too Ms. Quin, I'm Dick."

"Just call me Harley. So you're Jaybird's friend? How old are you? Are you from Gotham? Do you like red hairs? You're so cute! I hope your dad is single? Where_."

Jason placed his hand on her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Um...ten, yes, I think so and yes." Richard answered.

She yield with happiness, untangled herself from Jason an bolted toward him. "REALLY? How old is he? Is he still handsome? Does he has your eyes too? Does he like hyenas?"

"I...don't know?" Was she the lunatic Jason was talking about prior? Because she was totally creeping him out.

"Hey, Jaybird. He kind of looks like you, if you were pretty that is."

"Alright, that's it." Jason came to his rescue and snatched Dick's arm to pull him toward the exit door. "I think he had enough of crazy toady."

"Are you taking him somewhere so you could be **alone** with him?" Harley shouted from behind them.

Jason showed his middle finger to her.

"Jason you're mean! You never share!"

"HARLEY! SHUT UP!"

Dick chuckled at their interaction.

He followed Jason to the plaza. The smithy wasn't too far from the Wayne palace, but it was a long walk to his place. He was glad he had Jason's company for as long as he could.

"So, your aunt's a bit weird." Dick tried to open up a conversion.

"That's Harley for you. And she's not my real aunt."

"Oh. She seemed pretty close to you though."

"That's because she was one of the many people I grew up with."

"How many_."

"Don't ask about my past, cause I won't answer, so just...don't." Jason said without missing a beat.

"Alright." He wondered where the jug of wine mysteriously disappeared since they walked in the smithy.

"You pulled some charms in there." Jason sneered. "And you were scowling at **me** for fooling that bastard of a soldier. Yet, you yourself pulled the innocent act in front of Diana. I don't really get your deal here."

"I didn't act. It was the truth. Diana saw it too."

"Yeah, and Roy actually sees the future too." He answered sarcastically.

Dick gave a shrug. "You can believe what you want."

"Whatever."

"Don't worry Jason. Your first friend in Gotham wouldn't be a liar."

"You're not my first friend here. Diana was the first."

Dick hummed. "Speaking of her, she seems nice."

Jason breathed out a sigh. "She's great!" He had a dreamy smile on his lips. He was most likely thinking about her.

Dick grinned mischievously. "I bet you'd know."

Jason stopped his trek. "What's that supposed to mean?" His tone was wary again.

Dick's grin got wider. "I'm taking about your little..." He paused for dramatic affect. " **Crush** on her."

Jason looked confused for a second there. "Crush?" He repeated, but soon the dreamy smile was back on his lips. "Oh, that!" He started walking again. "Yeah, I mean..." He chuckled. "Who doesn't?"

Dick didn't actually expected him to admit that at loud, but he had a feeling it was the alcohol finally kicking in.

"How did you know though?" Jason asked.

Dick gave him a simple shrug in response.

Jason grinned at him. "You're quite observant now, aren't you?" Huh! Bruce has told him the same thing, too!

"You could say so."

"This shit hole isn't all just fucked up people after all."

Dick tried to change the subject. He didn't want to engage in another discussion about that city. He had enough of them with Bruce. "I don't think it's normal for a kid your age to swear that much."

"It's cause I'm not a kid." He gave Dick a side look. "I was born a mature man."

Huh! So much mature for a ten year old kid to drink wine and swear like a sailors. Very adult like behavior.

But before he could respond, Jason beat him to it. "And here's my destination." Jason stopped.

Dick could see the red haired fortune teller, Roy Harper, sitting on his previous spot, next to the fabric vendor, from where he was standing. Apparently, he was reading a lady's hand, to see her fate most likely. Their journey back to the plaza was cut short. He was hoping for more interaction with that Jason boy. It wasn't everyday that he met with a kid his age and besides, Jason seemed cool to hang out with. With his constant mood switch and his own especial usage of language.

Dick really didn't want to part from him yet, so he stayed quiet and waited for Jason to make his move and say his goodbye, or simply walk away. But the dark haired boy did non of that. He stood  in front of Richard and stared at him with those stun blue eyes of his. Dick didn't say anything and just stared back. Jason stepped a little closer, seeming to be analyzing him from a near distance. His groggy teal eyes were roaming Dick's face with curiosity and wonder. That was beginning to make him uncomfortable.

"What?" Dick managed to ask under Jason's stare. He seemed to be getting them a lot that day.

"She's right." Jason muttered, not taking his eyes of of him.

"Who's right?" He tried again.

"Harley." A pause. "You **are** kind of pretty."

Dick looked questionably at him. Did he just say he was...pretty? What was he supposed to say to that, thank you? Jason was drunk and from what he had witnessed of drunk people, they tended to do stupid stuff and say thoughtless things. so he guessed he shouldn't take Jason for his words. And besides, it wasn't like that was the fist time he had heard someone say that sentence. He was an adorable boy. He wasn't saying that he was proud. Just that it was merely a fact.

Jason made a quiet laugh to himself. "I'll see you around Dick" Then walked toward that red haired man.

And for once, he didn't say his name like he was teasing him.

****************************

 

When Richard finally arrived at home, he was met with a group of men, who seemed to be from royal palace, considering their luxurious armor and palatial horses. Bruce was there in the courtyard, talking to one of them, while the rest were up on their rides. When Bruce aw him approaching, he paused in his talking. Upon doing that, the aforesaid man turned to look at him.

He bowed his head. "Young sir." And acknowledged Richard.

Richard leaned his head down as a sign of respect, but didn't say a word as he didn't know the man.

"Richard." Bruce called him.

"Father."

When he was close enough to stand beside Bruce, his father said. "We've been summoned to the palace. King Thomas wishes to meet with us."

"Oh?" Why all of a sudden? He wanted to ask, but kept quiet. You wouldn't question the king of Gotham's command. Alfred taught him that himself.

"Prepare your ride son. He has specifically asked for you."

When he put it that way, it did not sound convenient. Richard hopped that it was just Bruce's usual serious expression and that nothing major has happened.

"Yes father."

Dick had the feeling that it was going to be a long day. Really, really long.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The man talking to Bruce? You bet it was Slade Wilson.
> 
> I decided to use Richard as his real name, and Dick as the name Jason and Damian call him. I wanted it to be special for those two.
> 
> You may think you know the guardian of phoenix by now, that it's definitely Jason as far as the previous chapter went.  
> But you're in for a hell of a surprise. ( Though Jason IS the phoenix, rest assured )
> 
> Your thoughts are so appreciated and every single criticize will help to improve the story.  
> If i had a mistake, please feel free to let me know of it. I'll need your support to continue and keep the the inspiration alive!  
> Thanks for reading :)
> 
> Next chapter we Got Damian!!!!!


	4. The newly found prince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick notes  
> Damian IS the son of Bruce, but neither of them knows about it. Bruce doesn't know he has a son, Damian thinks his father is dead.  
> For now, Dick is Bruce's only son and he's not adapted. Bruce actually raised him since he was born (His mother and father are Mary and John don't worry), but how Dick ended up being Bruce's son, is another story for another chapter. 
> 
> Enjoy! :)

Damian threw a jab punch at his opponent, fast and explosive enough to create a distraction. Then, he proceeded to swing his leg in a circular motion to land a roundhouse kick to his opponent's side. But she was quick enough to duck down and avoid the strike. She immediately straightened to hit him again. Raising her fists toward Damian's upper body, since he was in a vertical position, his guard was being held by his arms and the uppercut punches she was throwing his way, avoided his attempts at blocking. He took the hits, but didn't flinch even though she was striking with full force. He retreated back, raising his knee and foot to deliver a front kick at her stomach. His strike landed perfectly on her abdomen, causing her to momentary lose her balance. Damian used her distraction to perform a low reverse roundhouse kick, dropping her down. He was fast to launch at her, before she could push back up. He laced his arm around the back of her head and placed his entire weight against her neck. That choke hold would cause both air and blood restriction, which would eventually lead in loss of consciousness or death if he kept applying the pressure long enough. she tried to escape the hold, but the pain in her lunges and the loss of blood stream to her brain, prevented her of such act. Damian was familiar with that move personally, as the same technique has been done on him several times by his teacher, Cassandra Cain. Even though his opponent had the advantage of weight and more experience, he managed to take her down.

Suddenly, a powerful kick was connected to his face, causing him to lose his hold and get thrown to aside. His opponent, Jade Nguyen, drew a large amount of air in her lunges and started to choke on her breath next to him. That kick couldn't have come from her, It was landed from aside. Damian tried to see his attacker from his angle on the ground, on four hands, but his vision was blurry. His head was spinning and not allowing him to see clear, which indicated that the kick was aimed toward his jaw. He had a feeling the sudden wetness in his mouth wasn't all just mouth water, as far as the cooper taste went.

Jade got her composure together and stood up. "Commander." She bowed her head.

Damian simulated her manner.

"Chief."  the Commander said. "Who's that boy?"

"He's the new warrior sir." Her voice was slightly hoarse due to her sore throat.

The commander, aka Slade Joseph Wilson, general of Gotham city, trusted warrior of king Thomas, stared at him. Damian did his studies of the Wayne palace's authorities and heads before coming there. He would know such an important individual after all.

"Isn't he too young?" Wilson asked.

"He's fourteen sir, but quite skilled in hand to hand combat. He was able to defeat ten of our men without the usage of any weapons, while the others had the advantage of owning swords. As you just witnessed his ability to fight."

Damian could feel Wilson's critical stare at him. "What's your name boy?"

"Damian sir." He answered with his head facing the ground. He wanted to spit so badly. The strike he received in the face, caused the inside of his teeth to hit its gum and as the result, his mouth was filled with blood. Damn it. It wasn't the hit that got him frustrated, but it was rather the cooper taste he couldn't stand.

"How did you learn to fight?"

"My father taught me, sir."

"Where's he now?"

He didn't know, but he went for his cover story. "He's...he's dead, sir."

"Chief." Wilson turned his attention to Jade.

"Sir, his mother died giving birth to him. His father was the only family he had. His father was a warrior in Bludhaven force and died on a compilation mission by the league of assassins recently. He has moved to Gotham to serve the Wayne palace because he claims his father was from this kingdom and wishes to find a job suitable for his abilities." Jade told him the made up story Damian has fed her. That was not the reason for his present in the Wayne palace, nor was his background story about his deceased family true. But they didn't need to know about that for the sake of his cover.

Wilson hummed. "Does he know how to use any specific weapon?"

"He owns a Katana, but I haven't seen him use it yet."

"Can you boy?"

Damian raised his head to stare at the commander. "Yes."

"That's commander Wilson for you." Jade spoke with a loud and reprimanded voice.

"Yes commander." Damian corrected himself. He wanted to roll his eyes at how much of an apple polisher Jade was. He really wanted to go back to sparing again so he could choke her some more, to see how much of a chief she was then.

"I shall test his abilities later on, but for now, I came to fetch you chief."

"His royal highness has arrived?"

"Yes. And he's going to meet with his majesty soon."

"Just give me a few minutes sir. I'll be there in no time."

A pause. "Bring the boy too."

"Sir?"

"He said he wanted to work in the palace. I think I found just the right job for him. Bring him to the royal hall too."

"Yes commander." She bowed and motioned for Damian to follow her.

Damian simulated her action and started to walk behind her. So far, everything was going great. He managed to fight his way inside and then he was allowed access to the royal hall, where all the big heads, authorities and most significantly the king himself were. He was only hopping nothing would go wrong afterward.

***************************

 

Jade didn't give him time to wash up the dirt. She simply threw a clothing at him and told him to dry the sweats off of his face and hands, then handed him a leather armor, with matching wristbands to wear over his dingy shaded green clothes. A fair choice of attire for soldiers whom they worked under chief Nguyen's supervision.

After they dressed themselves worthy of the Wayne palace residents, they headed over to the assembling room. The royal hall truly deserved the name it was dubbed. It was a large salon, the floor was covered with beige colored marbles, which reflected the sun's rays perfectly. There were plain murals of Gotham's sign, painted all over the walls with light cream colors, which were almost invisible because of the bright day lights coming through the windows. Lanterns, decorated with teal stones, which he assumed, were likely chalcedony stone, because of their trigonal crystal structure.

Damian knew there were more important stuff at hand, like the elderlies, the ministers and authorities that required his attention, but he couldn't help but to linger a bit and just appreciate the beauty of art there. It was the royal hall after all.

He followed Jade to stand next to the throne.

"Enters his majesty."

The attenders stood to bow their heads. King Thomas arrived with his trusted counselor, James Gordon. As soon as he was sat on the throne, they announced another present.

"Enters his royal highness and his royal son."

A man and his son walked in to the hall. Damian thought that was strange. He has never seen them around the palace. And the fact that they were someone as important as a royal highness and his royal son, questioned Ra's Al Ghul's resources in that kingdom.

The aforementioned man and his son came to stand in front of the king, regardless of the wide eyes following them around. They bowed before the king and to Damian's surprise, held his stare. Normally that action would be considered impolite and someone would have reprimanded them about it by then, but no one did anything about the matter. Who was that man?

His question was soon answered as the king smiled fondly and said. "Son, welcome."

"Father." The aforementioned man said.

People started whispering. So Damian wasn't the only one who was unaware of the king's other child and his grandson. The king had a son and has hidden him from the plain sight until then. Well, wasn't that just interesting? But, why then? Was he an impure child that the king was ashamed of? Probably not, as far as the passionate looks the man was receiving from the king went.

"SILENCE." Commander Wilson shouted. Stillness filled the room again until the king broke it.

"Is he the child?" The king asked.

"Yes father."

Thomas motioned for the boy to come closer. The boy looked up at his father and hesitantly walked up to the throne. Thomas had a firm hand on his shoulder. When he talked next, his voice was filled with awe and wonder, like he was looking at a God rather than a small boy.

"Richard, was it?"

"Yes, your majesty." The boy, Richard, had a small voice as well.

"Look at you! You've grown so much since the last time I've seen you."

"I..."

"You're growing to look more like Bruce." The king stared at the man he called son from Richard's shoulders.

Damian looked at Bruce as well as the rest of the attenders in the hall. Out of all the glares sending the man's way, one caught Damian's eyes. The one which belonged to the first son of Thomas Wayne, Alexander Luthor. He looked like he's seen a ghost. Did he know about his brother's existence?

"I...thank you, your majesty." Richard awkwardly said. It was clear this was his first official meeting, as he didn't know how to handle the king.

Thomas just smiled and motioned a hand for Gordon. The counselor stood in front of the attenders. He started talking loud and clear for all to hear. "Listen up people of Gotham, for these are the words of our mighty king. This man, has the blood of royal family and this nation. Heavens is the testifier of his true nature and elderlies are the witnesses to his birth within the walls of Wayne palace. He has been away from his family and home for the cause of greater good. He's here now because of the king's call. A call to finally declare his successor."

Whispering started again, which was ended by the strike of Wilson's sword to the ground.

Gordon continued. "The king has chosen the next line in crown and wished for all to hear the declaration."

A pause. He gestured toward Bruce. "This man has the royal blood of Wayne. He's the second son of his majesty, he's the son of bat. Therefore...he will be the heir to the throne."

The attenders went wild. This time, even Wilson wasn't able to shut the noises down. Damian kind of gave them the right to make a fuss. Hearing the existence of another prince was one thing, making him his successor right after his introduction was a whole new thing. It's been hardly a day since he has stepped in there, but the drama of the palace was already dripping from its walls.

The son, Richard, turned to look at his father questionably. Bruce for his part didn't look surprised the slightest, his composure was calm and collected, like he didn't just heard the biggest declaration of his life. He was going to be the future king of Gotham for heaven's sake. Why on earth didn't he have a reaction? Was he made of stone? Huh. Like Damian was the one to talk in that favor.

Thomas brought a hand up to silent the people. Then said. "As you all know, I haven't been feeling well recently. I came to believe that...I don't have much time to see another sunrise in Gotham. My last wish was to see my son and grandson before death...and I trust him to rule this kingdom graciously and wisely. I affirm his competency to govern and lead Gotham to a better future and that should be enough for you."

"Your majesty..."

"Your majesty, please reconsider..."

"...Your elder son..."

"His royal highness Lex is the rightful prince..."

"...How can we trust him..."

"Your majesty, think about what people will do..."

"...Where was he all this time..."

"Your majesty, who will testify his royal blood heritage?"

"I will." His royal highness Lex said at loud. He has been quiet ever since Bruce's identity was revealed. Everyone turned to look at him, approaching his newly found brother. "I will testify that there's royal blood in this man's vein. At the time he was born, I was resident in Metropolis. There were merely a few times I have met him, but after I returned to Gotham, he was already departed from the palace."

Lex put a hand on Bruce's shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "The moment he walked in here, I knew he was the one. He's the son of king Thomas and Queen Martha and has the rightful place for the crown. I will testify for him, for he is my brother."

People started to make a fuss again.

"But your majesty..."

"...People won't accept..."

"...We beg you to think about the consequence..."

"Your majesty, your elder son has the rightful_."

Thomas cut them all short. "This is my final command and it **WILL** be granted. Now dismiss. All of you."

They bowed and reluctantly stood to leave the royal hall while still grousing under their lips.

"Not you Richard." Thomas called. "Stay."

Richard looked at his father. Bruce gave him a nod, which seemed to erase his hesitation.

"Yes, your majesty."

Everybody else, including the guards, commander and chief Nguyen left them alone.

********************

 

Jade has shown him where he would be staying. Comparing to his own room in the league, that place looked like a slavery prison. He put his belongs to a safe corner. He didn't know who his roommates would be yet, so he'd better be careful than sorry if one of them turned out to be a thief, which was a common thing among the poor.

During the day, he has heard some rumors about dark shadow, an establishment in the league of assassins used for training new warriors. It seemed like the palace was getting some ideas on how they worked, but of course, it was more than that. Damian has heard some soldiers gossiping about the existence of an organization called the dark shadows. And they were ordinary soldiers. If they knew something about the dark shadows, then the higher authorities absolutely knew more. He had to report that to Ra's, along with the newly found prince and his son's emerge. He just had to wait till it was dark enough to deliver those messages to his teacher and partner in crime, Cassandra.

He wasn't allowed to leave his room yet and there wasn't anyone or anything there to accompany him, so he tried to entertain himself by practicing the new moves Ra's has taught him with his Katana, until someone came to fetch him.

"His royal highness wishes to see you." The servant said.

He sheathed his Katana and followed her. They walked and soon, Damian realized that they were getting far from the palace and more in to the jungle zone.

The servant stopped midway and said. "I'm not allowed to go any further. His royal highness asked me to direct you here. You will have to go alone from here."

"Where should I go?"

"His royal highness has informed me that you'll be able to find him. Just go into the woods."

That just smelled suspicious. Damian stared at the woods. It was dark and there were too many trees there. A perfect place for hiding and a quiet murder. Why didn't he just asked to meet in the palace? What was he going to do? Has he found out about him cover? Damian wasn't that suspicious now, was he?

Don't make a big deal out of it, Damian thought to himself. His royal highness has probably heard about his skills and wanted to meet with him privately. And he chose a wood in the oddest hour. What was it with royal families that always wanted to be dramatic?

He huffed and started walking forward and getting farther and farther away from the palace with each passing second. He was starting to get worried. Was this their way of saying they didn't want him? To send him wandering in the woods till some animal found him and slaughter him into half? That was too dramatic. Even for the royal family.

Damian stopped midway. Someone was watching him. He could feel the heaviness of their stares on him. He took in the surrounding. Tall trees, faint moonlight shining through the leaves, an owl flying above his head. Damian clutched his Katana tighter, held his breath and listened closely to the voices around him. There was the shivering of the branches, the whistle of an owl, little whimpers of the wind and simply it was the woods breathing. But...was it?

"Catch."

Damian heard the sudden shift in the air and abruptly turned to catch the Shuriken thrown his way, just a few inches from his face.

"Good reflexes." His newly found royal highness jumped from a tree in front of him. How come Damian didn't notice him up there? Ra's would be really disappointed at him.

 _' What the heck your highness! If i wasn't trained that hard, I wouldn't be able to catch a shuriken in the air like that, and you'd be a murderer'_ Damian wanted to say those things to him, but managed for a simple acknowledgment. "You highness." He just wished he wouldn't sounded so irritated.

The prince, Bruce, cautiously circled around him. "Commander Wilson has informed me of your especial...talents."

Damian bet he did.

Bruce stopped in front of him. "Who taught you how to fight?"

"My father, your highness."

"Where's he from."

"Gotham sir."

"And your mother?"

"Bludhaven, sir."

"What's your name boy?"

"Damian."

Bruce hummed. "Where are you from Damian?"

Damian stared at him. What was with the questions? Didn't Wilson tell him the full report? "Gotham as well."

"Why are you here Damian?" Bruce asked patiently. "You wish to spy on our kingdom?"

"Sir?" He felt his blood run cold.

"Who gave you your name?"

That was unexpected. "My...my mother, sir."

"Commander Wilson says your father was a warrior in Gotham, is that correct?"

"Yes sir." Where was getting at?

"But...chief Nguyen says otherwise. She says your father was a warrior in Bludhaven."

Oh crap. He forgot! Damn it Damian. Get it together. **NOW.** "I...sir, he was born and trained in this kingdom, but he was tasked to go to Bludhaven for work."

"Hn."

Damian gulped and prepared himself mentally for the worst outcome in case the prince didn't buy his lies.

"How did you lose your parents?" Bruce started to circle him again. That situation was making him uncomfortable and frankly, it took a hell of a circumstance to achieve that. That mysterious prince surly knew how to push someone's buttons.

"I...my mother died giving birth to me and my father lost his life on a mission for Bludhaven."

"So if your mother's from Blud and your father worked in that nation too, by the time she gave birth to you, you must have been in that kingdom too. But...you said you were from Gotham."

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, **Crap!**

"I must have made a mistake sir." In that moment, Damian just thanked Cassandra and all the masters, who taught him how to stay calm in situations like that. Otherwise, he would have bolted long ago.

"Gotham hasn't had any communication with our west neighborhood, Bludhaven for more than twenty years. So, if what your saying is true and your father was born and trained in this kingdom, then the king wouldn't send his forces there. Was that another mistake you've made Damian?"

Damian felt the blood rash through his vein. His heart beating faster to ready him for an emergency escape, or maybe a fighting status. But he couldn't kill the future king of Gotham. They would be at his tail until they get their revenge. Beside, the prince has talked to commander Wilson and he was probably somewhere hiding around too. Damian's first exclusive mission was a failure and he was a fool for trying to lead anything.

Suddenly, there was a kick thrown at the back of his knees. Damian was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the prince sneaking behind him. The force of the kick was strong and quick enough to cause Damian to lose his balance. Another harsh kick was immediately send toward his back and he fell face forward to the ground. But he recovered fast enough to avoid the hurl aimed to his face, which turned out to be a distraction so the prince could kick his Katana aside. Bruce has pressed the ball of his foot on Damian's fist while being at it. Damian groaned in pain. _'Come on! Damn it! You're better than this' ._

He brought both his legs to Bruce's both thighs and flank to strike a scissor kick at him. From his angle on the ground, he couldn't land a perfect one, but it was adequate to free his hand from underneath Bruce's foot. He rolled out of the prince's range and bolted upward. The prince was at him before he could blink, punching and kicking at his side as Damian retreated backwards.

"Who are you?" Bruce asked.

Damian ducked from a fist, which was aimed toward the side of his head.

"Who send you here?"

Bruce threw a semicircular punch. Damian dodged the hit, but before the prince could withdraw, He stroke a straight hit to Bruce's jaw and a reserve elbow to his nose. He didn't miss a beat to deliver horizontal knee to the prince's stomach while he was at it. The hit was apparently hard enough that caused Bruce to bend forward. Damian used that opportunity to grab the man around his neck, raise his right knee to his chest to create some gap. Then, delivered his left knee to Bruce's stomach several times. Damian didn't need his katana to fight. It wasn't the first time he fought with a man twice as big as him. Besides, he already was winning. 

But Bruce had other ideas. He threw a wide swing kick to the back of Damian's single leg on the ground. If it wasn't because of his hold on the man's shoulder, he would have fallen hard on his ass. Bruce used a grappling hold to prevent Damian from striking effectively.

"Damian is a Greek name. If your mother gave you that name, then she's not from Blud." Bruce managed to say them without the slightest tremble or panting. How was that possible? Damian wasn't one for holding back his strikes. Bruce surly must have felt the effect too.

Bruce threw a front kick to his Adam's apple, which caused Damian to stumble backwards. He felt his breath was drained from his lunges. He has only ever been kicked that hard in his life and it was send from Cassandra. The prince quickly came at him, dummied a jab and as the younger boy swayed to his right, his attacker threw a straight punch right on his jaw. Damian's head was spinning. That was the second time in that day, he got hit in the jaw like that. Before he knew it, the older man tripped him on the ground, kicked him to a side, dropped one knee to Damian's back and the other to hold his feet, then he locked his wrist to keep the boy's head down.

"You fight like an assassin. Like the league. Your strikes are violence and aimed to kill. I didn't believe commander when he first told me a fourteen year old managed to take chief Nguyen down, but I see now."

Damian groaned. He was busted and beaten by the newly found prince. He just had to keep denying until he would get out of his grip.

 "I'm not an assassin!"

"Then who are you?"

When he didn't answer, Bruce applied the pressure harder on his back.

He grunted. "Alright! Alright! I'll talk!" Just fucking come up with something you moron, he thought to himself.

"NOW." Bruce demanded.

"The dark shadows."

"What about them?" He sounded interested. That was it. He had to tell them what they wanted to hear. Get them off of yours and the league's tail.

"They taught my father how to fight."

"Listen to me kid. You're in the middle of woods, in the late night and far away from civilization. You're accused to being a spy and no one will know if I killed you. I can and I  **will** if you don't start talking right away. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Talk." Bruce gritted firmly.

The cool dirt on the side of his face was chilly. The fresh smell of green was welcoming anytime, but then. He abruptly ran the made up story in his head, so he wouldn't make a goof of himself again. "My father was of this nation. He..." It was really hard talking in that angle, face down on the ground. "He always talked about it. He was obsessed about this kingdom. He used to be a trader here. He'd buy cheap silk from neighborhoods and...sell them with higher price in Gotham." Of course that was a believable lie, considering the mass of crime dripping from that nation. "In one of his travels, he was captured by the bandits and sold to the league of assassins. He...was send to the dark shadows. I don't know if you know about it or not, but..." Obviously he did. "They're an organization in the league...that trains the assassins and ninjas."

"So he became a leaguer." Bruce concluded.

"No...he wasn't send there as a soldier. He was a prisoner and as far as my father told me, they used the prisoners from Gotham to test their venom on."

Silence.

So they didn't know about that small detail. Well done Damian. So much for spying on them.

"They used some poisons on him, but he was able to survive. when they saw his amelioration body, they decided to train him as one of them...my father accepted, but only because he wanted to survive."

Bruce's grip on his wrist hadn't changed. A prince could never be that sharp, whether they lived outside of the palace for long, or not. He was one of a kind. It was just Damian's luck.

"He did their dirty work for some times...until he met my mother. And yes, she was from Greek, but she honestly died after bearing me...my father didn't want to put me under the league's care, so he escaped from there and raised me alone...we were at a run my whole life...he taught me how to fight since a young age and...he...was killed by the league a few months ago...we were at Bludhaven back then...and...they found him while I was away." Damian clinched his muscles to appear tense. He was talking about his father's murder after all.

"He was all I had...and...his last wish was to serve his kingdom again...I've heard some rumors that the Rastin king was born here, so...I came here to serve him and my father's land...To full fit my father's last wish."

"Why did you lie in the first place?" Bruce asked from above him.

That situation was getting on his nerves. His position was utterly uncomfortable and the prince's suspicious attitude was irritating the hell out of him. So he couldn't help the rise in his tone. "Because I wasn't sure, they'd believe me. I thought they were going to assume me a mole and kill me off. I couldn't just tell them my father was a former member of the  **league of assassins**!"

"Why should I trust you now?"

Was that guy serious? "I don't know! If you don't believe me, then no one's going to. So just **kill** me already. Everywhere I go is the same shit! I'm tired of this life. I'm not like my father. I can't hide for the rest of my life, when I know there's a king I ought to serve."

Bruce was quiet and unmoving above him. Damian couldn't exactly see his expression, but he bet he was debating whether to trust him or not. Silent stretched. It was seriously getting annoying.

Suddenly, the prince let him go and stood.

Damian rolled on his back and took a long breath to his lunges. Bruce held a hand for him to take. Damian eyed the hand warily, but took it anyway.

"You really wish to serve the Rastin king?" The prince asked.

He made eye contact for the better measurement. "I do."

After a pause. "Follow me." And he stared walking.

Damian sneered. "What? There's another test?"

Bruce turned to give him a look. "In case you've forgotten, This is the crowned prince of Gotham standing before you. Regardless of the fact that you dared to lay a hand on me, I'd mind my tongue if I were you."

Damian totally wasn't overwhelmed by his glare. It was his brain playing games with him, tricking him into believing the man's glare was scary. Yeah, that must be it. And he was nervous beyond his mind that his cover was blown and he couldn't exactly think right. True, he has dared to hit the future king of that nation, but it was merely his defense mechanism taking over him. The muscle memory didn't care about a royal opponent or a killer, it would spontaneously set to work when it felt threatened. Especially if you had a harsh training session with someone like Cassandra Cain. The same excuse would be said for his choice of language in front of the future king. when you were breathing dirt with each word that came out of your mouth, and the aforementioned prince wouldn't stop asking questions, then it would only be reasonable if you snapped. Damian didn't feel like justifying himself to an excuse of a prince, but he followed him anyway.

************************

 

After a few minutes of walk, they arrived somewhere which appeared to be a shack. With a wide courtyard, wooden fences all over it, like they somehow where claiming a territory. Damian saw commander Wilson and a young boy there, which he was guessing would be Richard, the prince's son. Wilson was eyeing him warily while he bowed his head for the prince. Damian did the same as they approached closer.

"We need to talk Slade." Bruce motioned for the commander to chase him elsewhere.

Wilson looked between Damian and Richard and asked. "Your highness?" It was a silent question that said _'Are you sure you wanna leave your precious son with a suspect assassin alone here?'_   Damian didn't know anything about the newly found prince, but how did Wilson come to grips about his fighting style being one with the league, was a wonder to him. He noted to keep an eye for him.

Bruce didn't answer him and just walked toward the shake. The commander sighed and reluctantly followed the prince, not before sending a warning glare his way.

When they were farther than Damian's range of sight, he turned to look at the little prince. He caught him staring at him with those big blue eyes of his. It was late night, but his eyes were a deep shade of blue. A hue of ultramarine or maybe like those cobalt blues they used for staining glasses. It was a strange color for a human being. How come he didn't notice them in the royal hall? That shade could be detected in a far distance.

Richard smiled. "Hi!"

Damian bowed again. "Your highness."

Richard rolled his eyes, but never skipped the smile. "So, my dad was talking to you in the woods."

Silence.

"What were you talking about?" Did he have to answer him or was it considered impolite if he didn't?

"I...I'm not allowed to talk about that."

"But he brought you here. Nobody knows about this place, except a few people and they're all trusted friends. But he brought **you** here. I'm not sure if I've ever met you before. Are you a family friend?"

"No."

"I saw you in the royal hall today. Are you a new warrior?"

Damian sighed. "I don't know yet. They haven't decided anything about me so far. I don't even know why they took me in the hall."

"But I just bet, whatever that would be, it's gonna be something good."

"How can you be sure?" Damian crossed his arms against his chest.

Richard gave a shrug. "Think about it. They took you to the royal hall on the day the king was going to announce his successor. They don't permit ordinary people to enter there. Especially, on an important day like that. And I heard commander talking about you to Bruce. When Bruce personally takes care of something, then you better know it's a matter of life and death. But yet, here you are."

His smile was making Damian unease. He sounded so sure. He continued. "Because otherwise, Bruce wouldn't have left me alone with you. You would have been um...dealt with." Apparently, Damian has said that last part of his thought out loud.

The kid was observant. How old was he, Eight? He assumed with a father like that, a kid like Richard wasn't unexpected. "Let's hope so kid...I MEAN YOUR HIGHNESS."

Richard chuckled. "It's okay. From the smell of it, we'll be seeing each other pretty much a lot anyway. You can't keep calling me royal highness for long."

"But...that's not right."

"Exactly! That'll just make it better." Richard winked at him. He actually just did that. Damian couldn't help the smile forming on his own lips. Normally, he wouldn't talk this much the first time he's met with someone, but there was a comfortable zone around that little prince that made it easier to say whatever that was on his mind. The comfort of that zone scared him off a bit too, but there he was, smiling at a mischievous boy.

Get it together Damian. It hasn't been five minutes since you saw the kid and you're already making speculation of him. Damian slapped himself mentally.

"What's your name?"

"Damian."

"Damian...That's a Greek name." He looked deep in thoughts. So the intelligence was apparently inherited from his family ties.

"It is."

"Nice!"

Damian arched en eyebrow at him. Richard continued. "You're the second friend I made today, who isn't from Gotham...or, like, the only friends I've ever made at all."

"Whoa there your highness. Who said something about friends? I'm much older than you."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Then you're only four years older."

"But...we just met and there's a possibility that we'll never meet again."

"Are you betting?"

"What?" Damian was taken aback by the sudden proposal.

"I bet we'll see more of each other. If I win, you have to do what I tell you to."

Damian rolled his eyes. "I'll have to do it anyway. You seem to have forgotten who you are."

"I'm gonna ask it as a friend, not as a demand." Richard frowned a bit.

"Still, as long as i wouldn't have a choice to refuse, it's an order." Damian gave a shrug of his own.

"But..." He huffed. "You're right." He grinned again. "So, if I win I'll get four coins. If you win, I'll **give** you four. Good?"

He couldn't believe that kid. "That's stupid. You don't need my money."

"Yeah, but that's not the point."

Damian just stared at him. He couldn't believe the word he was going to say. That kid knew how to play his game well, because he got Damian to play too. That wasn't an easy task. "Alright." Damian was amused with the boy. 

Richard smiled wider with glee. He caught the sight of Bruce and Wilson approaching. Perfect timing.

"Damian."

He bowed his head. "Your highness."

"I've decided for your position in the palace." His voice was authoritative as a king.

Damian stared at him. If Richard was right and nobody really knew about that place, then he was either going to get killed or really see the little prince more often. He was hoping for the latter.

"I decided to give you the benefit of doubt, therefore, you need to gain my trust."

"Just tell me what to do your highness."

"I'm afraid you'll have to find that yourself."

That was a hard task. Would it satisfy him if Damian killed for him or got killed saving his life? What exactly he had to do?

"Trust needs to be earned. I'm sure you could be creative too." Bruce continued.

"I'll avenge my father's death from those assassins. Would that prove my loyalty to you?" He tried to pour his anger in his tone. Bruce wanted motives, then Damian would give him just that.

"Revenge is not in our line of justice."

"You mean you never felt vengeful?" Damian wanted to punch that calm expression off of his face.

Bruce answered without missing a beat. "Everyday. But you need to channel that fire to good use. I can see it in your eyes Damian. You think you own your father a death. That's why you came here, because you knew you couldn't take the league down on your own. You came seeking their enemy instead. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is allay."

Nice consideration. So the prince wasn't as smart as he first showed to be. Bruce arranged everything for him. Damian just had to play it along. "I regret nothing your highness. Now you know my purpose. You either help me take them down or you'll leave me to go after them myself."

"This is the future king before you, you useless ignorant. Watch your talking." Wilson reprimanded him.

"Apologies your highness, but you have to decide what you're going to do with me. I'm in the air right now."

"You need to earn my trust." Bruce said. "You have to learn to trust our kind of Justice. Until then, you'll work as a low class soldier under chief Nguyen's supervision."

What? He hadn't come there to be a simple guard. The whole point of showing off his skill, was to gain a higher position among the warriors. That was bullshit. Why did he bring him there then? Or the royal hall? Why believe his story in the first place, while they didn't even trusted him at all? Why did that little prince sounded so sure? Did he know about this? Was this all part of a plan?

Damian couldn't help the glare he send toward Richard. "So, why am I here?"

"To see if you were a mole."

"Well...what about now?"

Bruce patiently said. "For now, we decided to believe your story. You ought to prove you're trustworthy. Didn't you say you wanted to serve the Rastin king? To take the league down? If what you're saying is true, then we'll help you, but we have to believe in your goal."

"I..." Damian looked at Bruce, the crowned prince, the future king of Gotham, giving him the benefit of doubt, giving him a chance to persuade him. He couldn't decide, whether the prince was a complete moron or he actually had a plan in his head, but he figured he would use the opportunity, which was provided to him. Damian had a mission to accomplish and a Ra's Al Ghul to satisfy after all.

"Your wish is my command, your highness."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I figured, because this chapter was from Damian's POV, I'd take notes of the things that Damian himself would too, like the details about fighting, art and colors.
> 
> I used to take Kickboxing classes and watch MMA matches with my cousin (we still do though :D), so most of the action and fighting in this chapter was from MMA moves. But it had martial arts and wrestling moves within it too if you've noticed. 
> 
> And, yes. Luthor is Bruce's adapted older brother, just so i could add to the drama. I mean, you can't have Clark Kent, without Lois and Lex. They always come together. But other than that, Lex has a pretty important role in this story. That's why I've tagged his name there too.
> 
> Your thoughts are so appreciated and every single criticize will help to improve the story.  
> If I had a mistake, please feel free to let me know of it.  
> I'll need you support to continue and keep the motivation alive.  
> Thanks for reading! :)


	5. The creature of the sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read this chapter, I just needed to say that Selina and Talia are two of the important characters in Batman's life, and i don't mean in this story. I mean, if you even Google Batman, you'll find a whole section dedicated to Catwoman, and since Talia is the mother of his son, those characters have a significant role in Bruce's life. No matter how much we hate them, they're always there, like how joker is always there with Jason Todd.  
> So, although this story is tagged Bruce/Clark , you'll see some Selina and Talia here too. as in past relationships. No matter who Bruce kissed or shares a bed with, he'll always have one person in his heart.  
> Enjoy! :)

**5 Months later**

Bruce pushed the paddles froward, then retreated his hands, circling his arms to keep the boat moving. He stopped at one point in the middle of the sea, figuring he was at a safe distance from ducks and civilization, but he turned around to see his surrounding anyway for good measurement. Better be safe than sorry. He focused his attention on the dark, quiet water, where his boat was floating on. He took a deep breath from the cold salty air. It was too quiet there. There was no trace of life except the slow sound of tiny waves hitting the side of his boat. Soon, that little noise came to a stop and Bruce was left alone with himself in the middle of the dark sea, where night creatures lurked beneath it.

He picked his knife and cut a small portion of his palm, merely deep enough for a few drops of blood to stream. He fisted his hands to put pressure on the wound and let the crimson liquid fall in the sea. That would do it, he thought to himself. He wasn't worried about sharks or other predatory aquatics to arrive hunting for his blood, for Bruce's blood was cursed to merely be noticeable for one specific creature only. That was why he didn't give a mind about being alone in the middle of the sea, at the darkest hour, while dripping his blood for aquatics creatures to smell. He was certain the aroma of his iron would attract the attention of just one being under the water.

The siren.

Bruce waited patiently for her to come. After a few minutes, familiar humming greeted his ears. The sweet melody he has heard numerous times, but never got used to the beauty of it. It was coming from a far distance, she was signaling her arrival, the song got clearer as she got closer. Bruce kept his eyes focused on the moving water in front of him, which meant that she was swimming near surface.

"The moon...blazes in her raven hair..." He felt like the song was being whispered to his ears. He turned around, but he found no sight of marine creature anywhere. The melody continued as close as before. "She lurks and lurks...under water in the dark..." Bruce relaxed his posture and let the sweet music trick his mind in to calmness, if only for a minute. "Beware, beware...her beauty is sharper than a blade..." Her voice was coming from all over his surrounding, like she was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time. "She sees your heart grow lonely...she sneaks around for more fear...listen for the song...she sings them from her heart...she'll give you all the things you want... she sees your lonely heart grow wild..." She was circling around his boat for a better effect. "Listen for the song...call you from the deep inside...she'll give you all the things you want...she cease your pain and kiss then gone..."

He saw glimpse of dark purple scales diving smoothly above the water, like how a shark would display his fins while preying. She probably couldn't help it, she was a predatory creature after all, in was in her nature to gloom horror in the hearts of her preys, especially since she was singing her hunting song.

"Just...listen for the song...you'll soon be having thoughts...of a heaven and a fairy...you'll just have to dive and carry...the melody..."

He let himself enjoy the seductive song. Not that it had any impacts on him, her voice couldn't affect him, she knew it too, but he genuinely felt more relaxed when he heard her song. So he let it be as long as she was willing to offer, just so he could allow himself to forget the devastating event, which drew him in the middle of the dark and dangerous sea in the first place.

"The creature of the sea...has all the things you need...just listen to her song...dive and carry one...she will be waiting..."

One set of green came out of the water, fixated on him. It was hers, but only half of her face was clear above the water. Predatory nature again, but at that point he was sure she simply was being a show off. "The creature of the sea." And with that last line, her song was over. By that time, the person on the boat already would have jumped in the waters, sank and got eaten by the seductive siren. But not if you were Bruce. Luckily or not, he has been unaffected to the siren's chant since a long time.

She swam to him and slowly peeked her head off the water. Her short, wet, pixie hair was clutched to her head, supernatural green eyes held his stare, lips grinning up to show sharp fangs, voice warm and sweet as ever. "Bruce." She leaned her arms to his boat and watched him with mischievous expression.

"Selina." He leaned forward too.

"Long time, no see." She put her hand on Bruce's. "Where have you been?"

Bruce let his own hand roam her forearm, tracing his fingers in her naked skin, feeling the frozen flesh underneath his touch, allowed it to cool his burning hand a bit. She continued. "It's been moths since last I saw you." Selina brought his hand to her face and leaned to the heat coming from his palm. "It was getting lonely down here." Bruce stroke her silky skin. Unlike her lower body, which was covered by dark purple scales, her human part looked as soft as fur and as pale as the moon. But once you touched it, it would feel as cold as ice and as greasy as a fish. One could easily move their hands across her skin, just like a silk. Bruce loved to touch her skin.

He put his hands under her armpit to lift her up. Selina gripped tight on his shoulders to bring her fin up and put it on his boat. Water splashed on the surface and on his clothes, the boat moved to sides from the sudden weight on it, but finally he managed to sit her next to himself, with her bare back pressed against his chest while the end part of her fin was dangling from the boat. Her wet skin didn't bother him the slightest, even though his clothes were then soaked and stuck to his body. He probably was going to get ill, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He came to her to seek her closeness, obviously getting cold was to be expected. He put his arms around her chilly body and compressed his face on her neck. He inhaled, but no smell came to his nose, he was sure if he put his mouth on her skin, he would taste the salt, but no such aroma would come out of her body. It never would.

Selina giggled. "Your so warm. It tickles me." But she didn't pull back or flinched. She brought one hand to tangle through his hair and moved her neck to aside to invite him more to his skin. "I missed you, Bruce." Suddenly, he became aware of how much heat his body was producing. He would always forget how warm he could be until he held Selina like that. How the anger, the pressure of responsibility, the lonely nights, the stress, would threaten to explode, but only for Bruce to burn them inside. He was like a fire that would only cease by the hands of Selina's frozen skin. He needed her to cool him and she needed him to warm her. That was how it worked. He needed her. She was the only thing that was left for from his past.

"Where were you?" She stroke his forearm, which was holding her naked chest.

"In the palace."

"All this time?"

"Yes."

"That's the longest you've been there. Are you finally back to your daddy?"

Silence.

"How did that happen?" She took his silence as a yes. "I'm guessing he did something really big to force your butt in around those walls." She just knew him too well like that. He didn't need to talk much, she would understand him even better than himself.

"Yes."

"Well, Thomas already knew about that Richard boy of your, and has already accepted the fact that you didn't want to live in the palace, and I'm pretty sure he didn't blackmail you, which leaves..." She turned slightly to look at him. A silent question on her supernatural eyes. "Is he..." She tried to ask, but saw something on Bruce's expression that had her swallow her words. "Alright?" She said quietly.

Bruce stared at her. She was able to read the pain in his eyes as her expression changed to what he could identify as sympathy. She has read the quiet message, she always did.

His father was dead.

Selina brought a hand up to put gently on his face. "I'm sorry Bruce." Her beautiful voice was filled with sorrow. She took his lack of answer as a fact that he didn't need words to sooth his wounds. He didn't come there to **talk** about his loss. He needed her to cool his fire, to chant him with her sweet melody, to read him like a book, so he wouldn't need to explain himself anymore. Selina turned to lean forward and pressed their foreheads together. Bruce closed his eyes and inhaled in her breezy breath, he let himself be held by cold silky hands and just enjoy her closeness.

Silence stretched between them, until Selina broke it without retreating back. "When."

"A week ago."

Silence.

"He made you his successor." It wasn't a question. It was a fact. She noticed that too.

"Yeah." He forced the words out, just as hard as his father forced him back in that palace. He didn't complain nor did he refuse when he heard, what his father has wanted from him, Bruce simply put a brave face and obeyed his king's command. It was a decision, which he didn't have a saying in it.

 _"We are all paws to the heaven."_ Thomas said. _"We were created to help the Rastin king to reach his destiny, your mother has lost her life for that belief and I will make sure that her death wasn't in vain. The boy needs to be the king and we have to build that path for him."_

Bruce came a long way to sit where he was then. Longer than his mother or father came to grips with. He has seen the evil the world carried and if there was someone who could make the world a better place, then he sure as hell was going to do his best to assure that to happen. Not because he believed humans were made for such a pointless purpose as paws to the heaven, but because he and his father had a common goal, to help the Rastin king, so he stayed quiet while Gordon read the declaration the day his father asked them to visit him.

"Why?" Selina's voice brought him to the world of reality.

He sighed, he hasn't moved to pull back yet. Didn't think he ever wanted to. "Because **he** needs to be the king."

"Richard." Her hands dropped, she leaned back.

"Yeah."

Comfortable silence stretched between them. Selina came back to Bruce's arms, put his hands around her naked body. She has never been one to shy away from physical contact. She was a siren after all, a part of her nature demanded such a thing.

"What are you gonna do?" She asked.

Bruce brought his hands to her soft breasts and squeezed the pale flesh in his fingers, feeling her heart streaming icy blood through her veins. She let out a contentment sigh and dropped her head on his board shoulder. He planted a few kisses on her neck while being at it, tasting the sea salt at the tip of his tongue. Selina fisted her hand on his hair and with that luscious voice of hers said. "Bruce...as much as I love where this is going, I know this isn't the reason you came here." She tugged gently on his hair to bring his head up. "Talk to me Bruce." She rubbed her silky skin on his cheek, soothing him into opening up to her.

She knew him too well. She could tell when he was trying to distract her from having to answer her question, when he tried to buy some time by focusing on her soft presence instead, when he didn't know what to say. Bruce wasn't sure if it was a siren thing or merely the fact that it was her, but she could read through him. And perhaps his willingness to speak and open his heart to her was because it was Selina, not because it was the siren. Because he certainly knew it had nothing to do with magic, as her chant wouldn't work on him.

He stared at her mystic green. "Tomorrow is my coronation."

"Oh? Then...how does your brother feel about this whole thing?"

"He didn't object."

"But you think he...what do you men say? Has something up on his sleeve?"

"I don't know yet, but I'll have to keep an eye on him. I didn't have that much interaction with him as a kid, and then he had that situation with Clark and Lois, so I have my suspects that he's not the brother I assumed of him when I was younger, especially after how easily he accepted me as the crown prince."

"You think he's after the throne?"

"Not significantly for himself, but rather for his son."

Selina hummed and leaned forward to whisper softly in his ear. "Be careful now Bat, the moment you put that crown on your head, you'll be having lots of people after your life." She ten started nipping on his ear, her cold breath would send shivers down to his spine.

"It's nothing I hadn't dealt with before. The only difference is that it used to be more fun before."

She chuckled. "Like the first time we met?" She licked on his pulse and sucked the flesh within her teeth, but she was careful with her sharp fangs as they brushed his skin. Somehow her icy mouth only seemed to increase his body heat rather than cooling it off. Only Selina was capable of making a fire out of ice.

It merely has been a week since his father deceased, he should have been mourning him, should have been seeking comfort because of **that** reason, but he simply couldn't. The future of a kingdom would be on his shoulders by the time sun starts to dawn, that was a heavy responsibility waiting for him, the pressure and the expectation of a lot of people would arise and not only he had to watch his back while sleeping, he had to be careful about his front in the day light too. Selina knew that too, from a few hours later, there would be more enemies after his head. Bruce loved and respected his father, but he never got to know him for the man he was. All he remembered of his father were the perfectionism of a child, who has lost both his mother and father in a split of moment. True, his father didn't lose his life along with his mother all those years ago and remained the king of Gotham, but the spell those witches has put him under, killed the true Thomas Wayne. Bruce has managed to break the spell and free his father from those witch's control, but along with the magic, Thoma lost a part of himself too, and Bruce couldn't bear to watch the only family he had, suffer like that, because he couldn't be the same person anymore. So he left the palace and his royal life to grow his son peacefully. Thomas's death was sorrowful and Bruce genuinely felt sad, but the truth was that his father died all those years ago with Martha that night. And there was the fact that Bruce had to face a hard future a few hours later, who could blame him for seeking Selina out for that responsibility and not his father's death? He had dedicated his whole life based on his parents until Richard came along and suddenly, Bruce found a new purpose. He would never forget his parents or what happened to them, but he no longer had time to mourn them.

So he paid his attention to the beauty in his arms, to cold lips and icy touches. Nobody mattered then. Not Gotham, not his parents, not his responsibilities, not even Richard. The only thing that needed to matter then was Selina and her only. And she just happened to be an expert on that.

Somewhere along the trace of kisses to his jawline, he managed to respond. "I wouldn't call it fun."

His first meeting with Selina wasn't very pleasant as far as the scars of the three lines of claw on his chest went.

"It brought **you** to me, didn't it?" She whispered them to him with her lips merely a breath from his.

He stared at her lips, which were grinning up on him, her plump bottom lip begging to be bitten, that pink color promising of sweetened taste. She didn't need her voice to chant humans, because one could easily be charmed by her beauty. He peeked a kiss on the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, I'm glad it did." And with that being said, he let himself be lost in Selina's soft and icy lips.

************************

 

**14 Years ago**

_Bruce paddled the boat more into the water. As he rowed further, the cold fog would get lower and moister, making it harder to navigate his destination, even with the big lantern on the front, which was recently fueled and was producing more lights than a half fueled one, it was getting harder to avoid the odd sharp rocks on his way, as their distance seemed to grow lesser as he rowed forward._

_The fisherman he interrogated earlier, has said that he had seen the owl masked men near a cave in those waters. The existence of those black misshaped rocks indicated that there really was a cave in those waters, but of the owl's presence there, Bruce was not sure._

_Bruce was getting too far. Far enough to be certain that he has entered another village. If he didn't find something useful, then he sure as hell was going to row all the way back just to punch that fisherman's liar teeth out for sending him to a dead end._

_He had to find those owl men. Wherever they were, the blade of Nightwing would be there too. Nightwing, the sacred weapon, which his mother was killed protecting, was stolen by those owl masked men years ago._

_Bruce was then trained and taught hard enough to be able to hunt his parent's killers, take his revenge and get back what belonged to Martha and her kingdom. His father was under those owl's spell and Gotham was being ruled by those witches. Those dam creatures took his mother's life, screwed with his father's head, took control of his nation and assassinate innocent lives and heaven knew how many other horrible things, how many other families they've ruined._

_They said that Nightwing belonged to the Rastin king and that it would awake when the heart of Rastin was introduced to it. Martha has been hiding that blade her entire life and died protecting it from those owl, just because she believed in a man who never came to her rescue, because she thought the man in their myth was real and would emerge, because her family filled her head with false hope of a man from heavens. Bruce had traveled the world and has witnessed the cruel, merciless and the brute of humans. He has watched evil, hell he looked straight to the eyes of a demon and heard the relentless in his voice, but saw no savior. Weren't those stuff bad enough for a heavenly king to emerge? Weren't they suffering enough for a God to pity them with a savior? Were humans truly that pathetic at righting the wrong that heavens decided that a holy being was required for that task?_

_Bruce didn't want to find Nightwing so he could preserve it for the Rastin king, He wanted it because...because..._

_A feminine voice brushed against his ears. He abruptly stopped moving. He turned to search for the owner of the voice through the fog and the faint lights coming from his lantern, but found no solid being except the dark rocks. It must have been the wind, he thought, but the voice continued, it sounded like a lullaby, but it sounded like it was coming from a distance. Bruce grabbed the lantern and circled it around in a hope to see better, but nothing caught his eyes. A giggle sound came from behind him, he turned only to find some small movements in the water, which indicated that something just swam in that part. The fog made it almost impossible to view that and if it wasn't for the fact that his boat swayed a bit more, he would have thought his mind was playing tricks with him. But something was definitely there. He wasn't alone._

_"Listen for the song...she sings them from her heart..." Now it was singing. Could it be an owl? He didn't know those murders could sing._

_"She'll give you all the things you want..." Suddenly, Bruce's vision wasn't the foggy surrounding anymore, he was looking at Nightwing, at that damn blade with its blue gems and beautiful design, right there for him to grab. Could it be that he has finally found his mother's last wish? He put the lantern down to reach it._

_"She sees your lonely heart grow wild..." That voice came again and Bruce saw Talia before his eyes. She was holding the Nightwing and when her eyes where locked with his, she smiled passionately at him. **"Beloved, you came back."** She held the blade before him, but he wasn't looking at that weapon anymore, he was staring at her emerald eyes, her warm smile and welcoming arms. She looked so beautiful with her long white dress, she was an angle without wings, God he missed her so much. " **You have finally found the blade, you can come home now. Come back to me beloved.** " Her voice was the sweetest sound he has ever hear. She brought a hand up, offering it to him, he could feel the heat radiating from her palm. Bruce took a step to take it._

_"Listen for the song...you'll soon be having thoughts..."_

_" **Bruce, I don't blame you for my death**." He heard his mother talking. " **I died protecting you and I'll do it again if I have to. I regret nothing**." His knees hit the wooden surface. Realization hit him. He was on the boat, he could feel the hard material beneath his fingers, but he was seeing...things. His deepest desire, his hidden crave and his last request of his mother. Someone was playing with his mind. The owls must have cast out a spell there. He was tricked. Bruce was going to move heavens to earth and find that bastard fisherman and make him shark's prey._

_"The creature of the sea...has all the things you need..." This time, he watched the people laughing, dancing and greeting each other warmly. A man carrying a cart, was spreading breads to everyone, nobody would be hungry anymore. A woman pulled gently at a donkey's rein, animals weren't treated with violence anymore. Kids were running around with no worries or parent to look after them, they were safe._

_"Listen for the song..."_

_No. That couldn't be it. He has traveled the world. That wasn't what the world looked like, that image was just...how **he** desperately wanted it to look. Someone was messing with his mind and it seemed they were pretty good at it. Bruce subtly reached for his shuriken, hidden in his sleeves, and prepared himself for the worst, because for some reasons he was leaning forward and utterly unwillingly, was about to jump out of the boat._

_"She'll be waiting...the creature of the sea..." Before he knew it, a hand came to his chest and pushed its claws in to his clothes and with a fast twist of wrist, clawed at his chest, ripping the fabric apart. Bruce unconsciously moved his hand to stab the creature with his shuriken, but the sudden pain was too much for him to keep his eyes open and watch where he was aiming. He merely heard a loud cry, which was lost in Bruce's own scream of pain._

_He fell on his butt and put his hands on his chest. He was bleeding fast and a lot, he pressed his hands harder to prevent more blood loss, but it was to no vain. As he put more pressure on the wound, his chest felt more like exploding, his lunges felt heavy, like a horse fell on them, each breath was getting harder than the other, he could feel his wounds drawing cold air as his chest rose and fell to inhale some air. Warm blood was dripping to the wooden surface, the chilly breeze were burning his stabs. God damn it!_

_Bruce's look fell on the creature responsible for his injuries. It was indeed a female individual, who was holding tight on her forearm with a look of agony. So, apparently he has managed to hit his attacker, well she then knew better than to mess with his head like that anymore. He would have grabbed her and forced her to talk by then, but he couldn't leave his hands from those severe wounds. But there was one thing he could do._

_"Who...are...you?" He was able to force the words out. He needed to know whether she was send from those owl men or she **was** an actual owl herself._

_Upon hearing his voice, her head snapped to him. She hissed and showed her sharp teeth at him. Of course she wouldn't answer. She couldn't possibly be human with those claws. Whatever she was, she didn't anticipated his attack, must have been truly confidence of her abilities to underestimate Bruce and his self-preserved mind. He was trained for that kind of abuse of mind, nobody could restrain him long._

_There was an unexpected force, which pushed the boat forward with a high speed and a powerful strength. It was abrupt and really quick, it send the boat circling a bit too. Bruce was being thrown to sides and it was getting quite difficult to remain the hand on his chest firmly. The boat hit something and Bruce was pushed forward. That time, his vision seriously blurred. His head felt light, but heavy at the same time, he was seeing dark, his hands were hot with blood, but his wounds were getting bitten by the cold. What did that bitch do to him? His head was spinning. That might had something to do with being floated on the water, but still, he couldn't deny the impact of blood loss on his mind either._

_He couldn't hear his attacker' s moaning anymore. She must have been the one to hit his boat like that. He couldn't move a single muscle. He felt exhausted, like he has wrestled with a bear, his energy was drained from him. Damn it! He couldn't die like that. He needed to move his ass or he'd either freeze or bleed to death. None of those options were welcomed in his opinion. He couldn't die. He just couldn't. Not like that, not then._

_He groaned and tried to push himself to sit up, with the smallest twist, his wounds felt like they were being redone, he wanted to just give up and lay there, he almost did, but he thought of the owls, the blade, his mother, he wasn't done with his life yet. He hissed and clenched his jaw hard when a chilly breeze brushed his injuries, but he didn't lean back, because he remembered Talia and her warm skin, her passionate looks, her fiery touches, her long silky hazel hair, which he loved to move his hands through. Her eyes, her lips, her smile, God! She was...He promised her.  He said he would come back for her. She was waiting, she...would wait for him. He wouldn't dare disrespect her like that. Giving up? That wasn't the man she claimed to love. Come on Bruce._

_His arms were trembling, his teeth clicking together, he felt empty and mostly cold, his whole blood was being rushed out of his chest and all the heat was leaving his system. Just how deep did that creature throw her claws at him? If he didn't close the wound soon, then in a few minutes, he would be a frozen corpse and no one would find his body, his father would remain under the owl's spell, their people would live in misery and...and the king...heavens...they..._

_"Ted! He's alive!" Someone shouted above him. Bruce's eyes ached and he couldn't see clear, but he saw glimpse of yellow. "Oh my God, you're wounded." The aforesaid yellow said gently this time. "We're gonna help you, alright? Ted's coming over. Just let me see that wound." That voice, it belonged to a female. Was she another owl? Where did this one come from? Was it another trick? Was she showing what he wanted right then? Help?_

_"Whoa there! Relax! Stop clutching at your injuries, you'll make it worse." She put her hand on his muscle, at first he flinched, but then slowly let the tense fade away. God, she was warm. He hated how pathetic he was that he melted in a stranger's touch that easily. Maybe it was because of the fact that he has been thinking about Talia and her fire skin more often than he would like to admit. And with his loss of blood, he was feeling the cold till the depths of his bone and she was the only warm being he could grab at other than his fresh blood streaming out of his chest. He hadn't even realized he was pressing harder than necessary to his wounds, which caused more crimson liquid to bleed out, until she put her hands on his frozen skin._

_"Hey! Hey! Don't fall asleep. You're gonna die if you do. You hear me? keep your eyes open, just...Talk to me. What's your name?"_

_"Br...Bruce." He tried to say, but he wasn't sure if it was loud enough for he to hear, he didn't even know whether he said it or not._

_He was sure she was saying something above him, but he couldn't see her face nor hear a word she said. His eyes felt heavy and ached really bad, he was shivering and was cold enough that he couldn't feel his wounds anymore, not even that small bit of heat, probably because his body has run out of blood to pour. Bruce's eyes felt heavy and the last vision he saw was yellow, before being surrounded by darkness._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The yellow haired woman? That's right, it was Dinah!
> 
> I want to note that the sirens in this fic aren't like the half bird women in Greek mythology, or the usual happy go lucky mermaids we know. They were inspired by them, sure, but they're quite different. We'll get to that part on future chapters.
> 
> This is a completely made up myth, with made up Gods and all. I just wanted to say that I don't mean to insult a particular belief or religious. This is just a fic and not my own opinion and belief.
> 
> Your thoughts are so appreciated and every single criticize will help to improve the story.  
> If I had a mistake, please feel free to let me know of it.  
> I'll need your support to continue and keep the motivation alivee.  
> Thanks for reading! :)


	6. The coronation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God! I went through fire and water to type this. I've typed the whole chapter down before and was ready to post it, but then everything went to shit an the text was deleted. I had to retype the whole thing again. I literally wanted to smack my head to the wall. But anyway, I finally wrote it!!!
> 
> Enjoy! :D

One would expect a day like coronation to be as majestic as the name claimed it to be. That was the day where you were being crowned a king, what more sumptuous event than coronation could possibly happen in a palace?

Richard couldn't think of one as he stood on his spot next to the throne. For all the fuss people has been making out of that day, he was rather disappointed to say it was boring, but it was actually true. He had been looking forward to a glorious celebration, maybe a party with wines and people being happy, but all he got in return was a formal gathering between the authorities in the palace's temple, where they were dressing in fancy silky clothes and standing straight and pretending to be interested in the speech that Giovanni, Wayne palace's sorcerer, known as Zatara, was giving about Gotham, heavenly stuff and the previous monarchs.

Richard didn't mean to be rude or anything, but he wished that Zatara would stop at one point and announce Bruce, the king of Gotham, so that they all could go to their own business. He has been standing for quite a long time, listening to speeches that didn't make any sense to him, and he was utterly bored. His legs were itching to move, he wasn't used to that kind of formality, he wasn't even allowed to cross his arms or crack a single voice, it was considered bad manners. Richard was instructed to do and not to do certain things,  because _'It was his responsibility as the future prince to act like a royal member and according to the public interest'_ . It was the first time he was living in a palace, not to mention as a future prince, so he wasn't familiar with all the rules and expectation that came with the job, nor was his father, but one look at Bruce and he doubted his judgment about his father.

Bruce was standing in front of the throne, dressing in a long furry robe, which has been worn by a lot of monarchs before him, as far as he knew. Bruce's expression was as indecipherable as usual, there was no sign of tiredness or discomfort. Nobody reprimanded Bruce for behaving inaccurate, because apparently he seemed to do them right. It irritated him a bit, Bruce lived as much as a normal life as he did, he was the one who claimed to have traveled the world and actually lived outside of the palace for a long time, Richard shouldn't have been alone in feeling uncomfortable from all the formalities, yet, he was.

Bruce wasn't only royal in blood, but in heart too. Years of isolation from all those luxuries hadn't separated him from his family regions.

The speech came to an end. Bruce knelt as the counselor Gordon read the vows and asked his father to repeat them with him. They were a lot. From regulations regarding the land protection, communications with neighborhood nations, elderlies allowance in interfering with his governing, necessary providence for people, to his duty toward the heaven. Bruce accepted them all without hesitation.

Richard always admired his father's strong willpower. Since the day king Thomas had made him the crown prince, Bruce has been at edge. Richard has witnessed the tension in Bruce's body every time they walked in to the royal hall, or could hear the tiredness of his voice when the subject was brought up. Obviously Bruce would never admit it out loud, but he wanted to run away from those walls just as bad as Richard wanted to, he could see that in his eyes, he was afraid. But he was also strong, stronger than his fear, so he wouldn't let them take over him. One look at his father and Richard could already see how he used those fears as a consciousness to stay alert.

Or literally to stay awake, since he was sure Bruce didn't sleep a minute the night before. When the maids arrived to prepare his father for the ceremony, they found no trace of him anywhere and when they did, he was heading toward the royal bath, while he was soaked in water and smelled weird, which just proved that Bruce wasn't in the palace last night.

After his father vowed his responsibilities, he stood and walked toward the throne, sat on the big chair. The girl, who has been holding the crown, got close, offered the crown to Zatara and retreated next to Richard. He has seen her around the temple, she went by Zee, he thought it was a pretty cool name. And she looked an awful amount like Zatara too. Perhaps they were siblings?

She caught him staring at her and offered a smile. Richard felt his cheeks getting warmer and instantly looked away. One day, That close observation of everyone was going to cause him some serious trouble.

Zatara put the crown on Bruce's head and stepped back. "All hail, king Bruce. Let the heaven be your guidance and you be ours." He said loudly for all in the temple to hear and bowed to him.

Everyone else followed suit and bowed. "Hail, king Bruce. Hail."

The girl next to him tugged at his sleeves from where she was facing the ground and repeating the salutation. Upon seeing her, Richard came to his senses and immediately bowed. He was too distracted watching everyone hailing his father, it was a new thing, kind of weird, but perhaps only for Richard as Bruce looked nothing near as uncomfortable and awkward as he did. He looked placid, powerful and truly worthy of the sumptuous crown on his head, he belonged in that luxurious lifestyle.

Richard looked at Bruce. He was seeing the man who would climb a tree to give him a life lesson, a man who would let him sneak to his room whenever he had a nightmare or couldn't sleep, a man who patted his shoulders for not crying when he got hurt, a man who would tell him stories of the world of magicians, sea creatures, Gods and demons. A friend who would get dirt on himself just so he could teach him how to ride a horse, a mentor who would show him how to be good, a father who would stay awake the whole night whenever his son got ill, a brother who patiently taught him how to read. And then he was a king. Richard looked at Bruce and saw all the things he was for him, but then his eyes would drift back to the crown and he would be seeing a distinct person. The all mighty king Bruce.

His father's eyes caught his stare and Richard saw the hidden plea behind those determined look. He gave his father an assuring smile, which was returned just as warmly as his own. Yeah, Bruce was a king then, but he was still the same person underneath all the majestic materials surrounding him. He was still his father. He could always count on that.

******************************

 

The coronation didn't end with putting the crown on Bruce's head. That was just the beginning as the crowd gathered in the royal hall. Bruce sat on his original throne and people started to come close to say their congrats and make genuine wishes for the king and his kingdom, put their presents at the foot of the throne and leave for the party, which was waiting for them in the massive ballroom of the palace. Bruce would patiently nod his head and simply thank them for their thoughtful presents and Richard had to stand quiet and unmoving beside him, just like how a decent prince would behave, and endure hearing the same sentence over and over by the guests "Hail, king Bruce." He had to see their outrageously expensive presents, which frankly had no use for them, and watch his father looking grateful each time a gift was received. Richard speculated that the sighs Bruce made were more than the amount of gold crates they were given.

It felt like torture. No wonder Bruce had left the palace to live an adventurous life in the real world. Maybe Richard would do that too, that was if he would be daring enough like his father was back then.

Eventually, all the formalities were over and Bruce and he, were given allowance to joint the crowd in the party.

The servants announced their presence to the ballroom. "Enters, his majesty and his royal highness."

The crowd stopped whatever they were doing for the favor of bowing to them. Bruce smiled and waved them off.

Was that the direction his life was leading on? To live in an enormous palace, with its residents constantly stopping their treks to bow at him every time he passed? To be followed around, told what to do and what not to do? What has his life become?

Richard sighed for the millionth time that night. All those weary traditions were too much for a ten year old to endure. He might just scram, or maybe go the library, anything was better than being bored to death like that. He looked at his father, who was sitting next to him on the dinner table and thought to himself, that could he really leave his father to face the guests alone? Could he let Bruce tolerate the forced smiles on his own? Could Bruce be good by himself? The answer came as a flashback of a memory. A reminder of a man who would climb a tree just so he could tell him not to run away from his problems, to be brave and not let the fear govern him.

Just a few more minutes, he thought to himself. Then he would be excused to leave. Because adult entertainment would eventually take place and by the sound of it, it wasn't something arranged for ten year olds.

"Your highness, you're due to leave." One of the servants said from behind.

Guessed his torture came to an end sooner than he thought.

Richard stood and bowed to Bruce. "Your majesty."

Bruce gave a simple nod. Richard would have stayed and tolerated a bit longer for his father, but he was dismissed and even Bruce couldn't keep him by his side any longer, knowing what was coming for them.

So he left with the servant at his tail. He turned to look at the woman with her head bowed down and said with a smile. "Thanks, I know where my room is. You can go now."

"Yes, your highness." And just like that, she was gone.

He started walking until the sounds of broken objects had him stopping his trek. The sounds were coming from the room beside him. That was the room, which led directly to the ballroom for servants to bring food. So sounds of broken things was to be expected. But what glued Richard to his spot, was the voice that followed after that. "Who the fuck are you? Why did you want to poison the king?" Sounds of more broken stuff was heard. "Answer me!"

 **WHAT**? Did he hear right? Somebody wanted to poison the king!

Before he knew it, Richard has run to the room, where the noises where coming from. There, he saw a clutter of broken plates and foods everywhere and an angry guy chocking a servant to death.

"You piece of shit." He recognized Damian's voice, as the guy who was doing the chocking.

The servant's back was bent over the big table, his appearance was a mess and his face looked blue, like seriously blue.

"Damian!" Before he could witness a murder in front of his own eyes, he called his name.

Upon hearing his name, the aforementioned boy turned to him. Richard, who wasn't expecting that furious look in his eyes, was a bit taken a back. He thought he had seen fire in those bright green eyes for a second.

"What's going on?" He forced the words out.

Damian turned from him and delivered a really hard punch to the servant's face, which immediately knocked him out.

Richard stood there, terrified by the scene before his eyes and Damian's angry state, watched as Damian spoke between his gritted teeth. "That bastard poured something in his majesty's drink." And started running toward the ballroom's direction.

Richard knew he should have followed him, to make sure his father wouldn't drink of that poisonous wine, to go and shout for Bruce not to sip anything, but he found he couldn't feel his legs nor a single muscle. He just stared wide eyes at the unconscious man and the wrecked surrounding in the kitchen. He was too shocked to have an abrupt reaction like the one Damian just had.

Noises of sword clicking and shouts of battle came to his ears and brought him back to the world of reality. He ran toward the source of the sounds and saw more unconscious soldiers on the entrance door, while the gate was swinging from side to side.

He wished the heaven that it was Damian, who just bolted inside and that they weren't actually attacked. His prays were granted as he ran through the door just in time to see Damian kicking a wheel, which the drinks were being served to the king. Silence filled the massive ballroom as the crowd stopped whatever they were doing in favor of turning and looking at Damian.

"We're under attack." Damian warned

Soon, everything became a mess. Feminine scream filled the air, people started to panic, soldiers darted inside, pushing past him to get to the green eyed boy and wrestled him to the ground.

"Let go of me!" Damian tried to speak while his face was being pushed violently on the ground. "You idiots! They want to kill the king!" But nobody ceased their hold on him.

"Protect the king!" Commander Wilson shouted at his men. Soldiers surrounded Bruce.

Everything happened in a blur, Richard ran toward his father, Bruce's eyes caught his own, reflection of a sharp blade was shown above his father's head, Richard shouted but no voice reached his ears, Bruce calling him was the only audible voice, concern crystal on his icy eyes, heart beating like crazy, the blade was getting closer, people ran around in front of his vision, Bruce escaped the wall of soldiers surrounding him, he reached out a hand for Richard, blade getting closer, eyes wide, throat sore, heart pumping faster, blade came next to his father's throat, soldiers running toward the king, shouting, screaming, but no voice brushed his ears, he couldn't reach Bruce, why was his father suddenly so far? Blade shinning, Damian, he jumped on Bruce, gripping his father's waist, both falling hard the side and suddenly...

" **BRUCE**!"

Lights went out, thousands of glasses broke, a tumultuous noise covered all the screams, more shouting arrived, everybody ran toward the door, more soldiers came through the crowd.

The chandelier had fallen.

Richard lost sight of his father through the lack of light and the huddle of crowd. Smell of paraffin and wax burned his nose.

"BRUCE!"

His heart was coming out of his mouth, his feet were trembling. He felt light, like he would fall if he took a step.

A body bumped in to him.

He fell, right in the middle of the clutter of glass.

His hands stung, head was hurting. He heard a loud road. "Hail the demon's head." Warm liquid was splashed to the side of his face, he turned to look at the source of that from his angle laying on the hot glasses, he saw the blade again, the one which was above Bruce's head just then, the man containing the weapon was now in front of him, with a sword in the middle of his chest, dripping warm blood on Richard.

He screamed, but his voice was lost among the many noises in the room. That terrified him even more. It felt like a nightmare, but then it wasn't. The smell of blood, the burnt on his hands, wetness on his face, they kept him conscious. Told him it was real.

The sword was sheathed from its place within the man's chest, and he fell, eyes wide open on the broken glass beside Ricard, that caused him to shrink farther from the corpse next to him. Behind him, Ricard saw a woman holding the sword, which was colored crimson by the man's blood. Through all the panic, Richard's mind recognized the owner of the bloody sword of that woman as prince Luthor's personal guard, Mercy. Drops of blood were falling from her sword and she stared with cold, expressionless eyes at him. Richard tried to crawl out of that sight, pieces of glass tore his skin apart, the heat radiating from the paraffin bit his wounds, but he didn't care. He just wanted to go. He just wanted to run.

Two sets of hands scoped him up, Richard flinched and tried to kick the hands off of him. "No! Lemme go!"

Large hands grabbed his face and forced him to open his eyes, he hadn't realized he closed them just then. "Richard, look at me. Look at me son."

Bruce.

"You're fine. Everything's going to be okay. It's fine."

"Bruce." Richard sobbed his name. He hated himself right then, but he couldn't help the tears that were falling down on his face. He thought Bruce was dead. He thought he had lost his father. His family.

But the poison, the blade, the chandelier.

"It's okay son. I'm alright, see, I'm fine. Damian saved me." Apparently he was thinking out loud.

Only then he noticed the other pair of hands on his shoulders.

Damian.

The boy with bright green eyes, who has saved his father, and now was there to save him too.

"Come on son. Let's go." Bruce held him tight to his side and pushed him to run along with him. Soldiers came surrounding them again until they were safe in Bruce room.

Seriously though, who said coronation was boring?

*******************************

 

A few hours later, Richard found himself wrapped around a blanket, with a cup of green tea in his hands, the hot steams, which were brushing his skin, felt nice. Made him calmer as the familiar heat surrounded him. As soon as the trembling in his body was over, he was allowed to hold a substance in his hands, which they gave him when they made sure it wouldn't slip from his grip. The smell of green tea was already doing its magic, his body felt more relaxed and he could sense the tension leaving his muscles.

It had been a long and stressful night. When they had dismissed him from the ballroom, he was tired enough to fall asleep as soon as his head would hit the pillow, but then he found out about an assassination attack regarding his father's life, and ever since, he has been alert and as awake as an owl. No matter how many blankets they threw at him, no matter how much drug they forced down his throat, or even how many hours Bruce had to sit next to him, comforting him and whispering that he was alright, Richard's mind wouldn't shut down to let him rest a bit. The tea was helping a little, but not much.

Bruce has left his side to take care of the man, who poured poison in his drinks, but he wasn't back yet. Although he claimed to have never as much as even sipped a single drop that night, the healers forced him to throw up. Bruce complained, but eventually gave up and put two fingers down his throat and vomited his whole stomach out. It wasn't a pleasant sight, to see his father gagging and fighting to inhale as much as air as he could due to the compelled act, but what even disgusted him more, was to watch a healer smelling Bruce's vomit up close, to the point where Richard thought his nose must have touched the goo, and confirmed that the king wasn't poisoned. Healers were gross. Someone had to be really poor to choose a job, which dealt with blood and horrifying wounds. Only a person, who was left with no choice, would decide to be a healer, Richard thought to himself. Why else anyone would want to work with unpleasant sights in their life?

Bruce seeming to have felt his discomfort, put a firm hand on his shoulder and gave a assuring squeeze to him, when the healers were attending his wounds. It turned out that he wasn't injured that badly, at least not the way he thought he was. There were merely a few scratches on his palm and the heat from the glasses mostly closed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. That must have been the burnt he felt, otherwise, he wasn't hurt physically as his expensive clothes took  most of the harm. The whole panic and the thoughts of a deceased father, just helped making a drama out of the situation.  Aside from the slight trembling in his body, the medical check revealed no sign of harm.

Richard didn't care about his own wounds back then, he just wanted to make sure that his father was alright, to see him breathing, moving and being alive, but Bruce had to untangle himself from Richard to attend the interrogation. Richard argued that he was the king then and others should be taking care of stuff for him, but all he got in return was a reprimanded look from his father and a silent reminder that even though he was the king then, he was still Bruce Wayne underneath the layer of expensive fabrics. He wasn't one for shrinking from responsibilities when the situation got hard to handle.

That was how Richard found himself, tugged in a blanket, in Bruce's room, sipping green tea while he waited for his father to return.

After he finished his drink, the doors to the room opened to reveal Bruce. Richard pinched his arm to force himself not to jump at his father and stay down when his eyes caught notice of him. Bruce slowly approached him, seeming like he didn't want to disturb the calmness in the atmosphere. He sat next to him, Richard subconsciously scoped closer to his father. Made sure his knees were touching in a way, just to feel that slight closeness, enough to make him believe he was real and actually was sitting next to him, real and alive as ever.

His father smiled warmly at him. "How are you son?" And reached his hand to stroke the locks in Richard's hair.

"Fine." _'Better now that you're here.'_

"Why you haven't slept yet?"

Bruce's hands were warm. The mellow touch of those fire like skin,soothed his nerves everywhere they roamed. He already felt at ease. It left his mind tranquil way faster than any drugs or any tea could possibly achieve.

"I couldn't sleep." But then with Bruce's presence there, he felt like he could drift back to deep sleep easily. But then he remembered why he couldn't yet. "What happened Bruce?"

Bruce sighed and pulled his hand back. Richard kind of wished he hadn't though. "We tried to interrogate the man, Damian claimed to have poison my wine, but he would resist the...resist answering."

Richard frowned at his father. He wasn't a kid and he wasn't that delicate to break with the mention of torture. He might have been young, but he knew what was going on behind the bars of prison. But he decided not to say anything about that as he was more interested on the subject at hand. He made a mental note to talk about that issue later with his father though.

"And before we knew it, he ate...something venomous, which killed him off right away. So we couldn't know their motives, nor who had send them, but Damian helped to identify some of their belongings, which turned out to be of our enemy's"

"Who's the enemy?"

Bruce answered after a minute of silence. "The league of assassins, where we initially presumed Damian to be from."

"But...it couldn't have been him, he...he saved your life."

"He did, which raised the question that why him? Why was Damian the only person to had caught the man red handed, or jumped just in time to save me from the falling chandelier? Doesn't that smell suspicious to you?"

Richard's eyebrows came down to form a scowl. "No! How can you say that? He saved your life! I was there when he found the servant man, who tried to poison you. He fought the guards to get to you, he threw himself in danger for you. What else is he supposed to do so you trust him? It wasn't his fault that he was born a leaguer. How can you be so_."

Richard bite his tongue to prevent himself from blurting out something he would regret later. Yeah, it was true, Bruce could be cold-hearted, but that wasn't the right time to bring it up. Bruce was as much as hurt as Richard was, maybe even more, considering he was the target of an assassination. Bruce had endured a long day, wasn't allowed the comfort he genuinely deserved, because he was a king then and made an oath to never shrink from responsibility. It was a stressful day and Richard didn't want to end it with an argument. So he stayed quiet.

He felt like he needed to defeat Damian's honor in a way thought. The boy saved him and his father's life. He understood Bruce's action back in the day, when Damian first stepped foot in the palace. According to commander Wilson, he fought like an assassin, so Bruce had all the rights to be wary of him, he couldn't be trusted, but what about then? After five months of obeying and accepting whatever fate Bruce would put before his feet, not to mention the fact that he saved their lives, he didn't deserve the dubious attitude toward him. Richard just wished Bruce hadn't spoken his mind to the boy.

"Richard." He brought his head up to meet the icy blue, Bruce inhaled a sigh. "When I traveled to Greece, I met a man, who told me stories of Gods and Goddesses, folks who lived on the highest mountain, on a place called Olympus." His voice was gentle, just like the times he was about to teach him something, but what did Gods and Goddesses had anything to do with the situation at hand? But he didn't complain as Bruce continued on.

"One of them caught my attention. The story of 'Pandora and the box' " Why was he trying to change the topic all of a sudden?

"He told me Pandora was one of the very first women created on earth, she was a woman, who cared about humanity a great deal and thus, she has attracted  the attention of the Gods in Olympus, mainly the attention of Epimetheus, one of the Gods there. Soon, Epimetheus grew fond of her and took her to Olympus as his bride. The Gods and Goddesses, who were very happy about their marriage, each gifted her with something, to a point where everyone at Olympus called her 'All gifted'. Epimetheus gave her something especial, he gifted her a box, which mustn't have been opened."

"Why'd he do that if it wasn't going supposed to open?"

"Because it wasn't an ordinary box. It was a box, which contained all the evil that troubled humanity. Epimetheus used that box as a prison to hold the evil."

"So...why did he give it Pandora? Wasn't she a good person?" Richard found himself easily drawn to the story and Bruce's calm voice.

"She was. That's why he gave it to her. She was an example of a good human beings, who helped men to keep their evil side at bay. Pandora reminded him of the box, which contained the sins as well.

"Ever since their marriage, Pandora lived among the Gods and Goddesses in Olympus, they were the couple, who were favored by all the residents there, everything was great, but...there was a problem.

"Pandora and the box. She was a human and thus, she was not immune to the box's influence. The box, which had a shape of a skeleton with one set of glowing eyes, had an aroma of evil surrounding it and whenever Pandora was near it, she would be corrupted by its sins. As a result, she would come to earth, whisper evil to the ears of men and seduce them in giving in to sins. In her view, she was punishing the mankind for disobeying the God's order.

"Pandora became obsessed with the box, after a while, she disobeyed Epimenteus's order and opened the box, unleashing the seven sins on earth.

"Pride, Envy, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Greed and Glut. Those sins took over the world and corrupted mankind. Soon, wars were arranged, brothers and sisters were killed, human were being slaved to their own kind and the world was filled with evil again.

"When Gods found out about Pandora and the box, they arranged a trial against her, but Pandora, who was now clean of the box's influence, begged forgiveness, but her sin was bigger than a simple execute, so the Gods transformed her in to the third eye of the skeleton, so she would watch the evil she had unleashed upon humans forever."

"Poor Pandora." Richard couldn't help, but state how he felt.

Bruce had a fond smile on his lips. "Why would you say that? She brought sins to our world."

"She wasn't bad all the time. It was the box's influence. Just because Gods were immune to its power, didn't mean she was too. How could they do that to her? Now she has to witness the sins humans would make and suffer for eternity? That's not fair, she was a good person once."

Bruce put a hand over his son's shoulders to pull him against his chest. Richard brought his own hands out of the blanket and wrapped them around his father's waist, listened to the comfortable beating of his heart as his face was pressed against his father's warm chest. Richard could finally inhale a relaxed breath to his lunges. No matter how old he got, his father's embrace would always welcome him. Bruce was so warm all the time, he was like the sun, radiating heat and life as he breathed. The thought of that heat being over one day terrified him to his core, so he clenched tighter to Bruce.

"Son, listen. I asked that man in Greece that why there's evil in the world, and he told me the story of Pandora, but I don't believe in it. I don't believe that humans sin, because a woman opened a box out of curiosity. Evil has always existed. But it doesn't mean humans are bad. Nobody was born a bad person, they're taught evil, are raised to be bad. Look at Pandora, she was a good human beings until the box of evil corrupted her. We don't have a box full of sins now, but we do have people with bad intentions, like the person behind the assassination today. Those leaguers were influenced by their leader, you think they joined that organization because they wanted to do evil? No, they think they're fighting for the greater good, for the right cause, that's what their leader made them believe. If their boss told them to help innocent people, those assassins would, if they were told to kill an innocent, they would do that too, because in their minds, they all think they're doing the right thing."

"I...I don't get it."

"You will. One day you will."

Comforting silence filled the air. Richard was ready to fall asleep anytime. Bruce was beside him, warm and alive, soothing his mind with mellow tone and gentle hands, the rhythm of his heart was lullaby to his ears. All of a sudden, he felt the exhaust of the night, crushing on his back, making him to lean further to his father, he was ready to be gone for a couple of hours, but it seemed like Bruce wasn't done with the night just yet.

"I understand where you're going with this. Damian saved my life today and I'm grateful for that, but I'm a king now, I have powerful enemies now, so I'll have to be caution about everything, especially if it's regarded to my enemy's behalf."

By the mention of Damian, Richard was wide awake now. "But he's not your enemy."

"We don't know that yet. What we know for sure, is that he has connection to the league. He may be under their spell and not be aware of it for all we know. He says he wants to take revenge and I believe him, because I can recognize the feeling, a major part of my life has been based on feeling that way, I can identify an eye of vengeance anywhere. But is that resent directed toward the league...or us?"

Silence.

"Richard, you're an observant boy. You should be able to pick the clues up by now."

Richard arched a confused eyebrow up even though he knew Bruce couldn't see it.

Bruce continued. "The assassins were dressed as the workers of the Wayne palace, which means someone must have led them in within our walls. Someone who was already inside."

"And since Damian has a history with the league, he's the first to doubt. And yeah, I could see the motive, he manipulated his way inside, stayed a peaceful five months here, then suddenly, lets his assassin friends inside to attempt a murder against the king, so he could be the hero and save the day and gain the trust he was denied."

"That's my clever boy." He could hear the smile on his voice, even though he couldn't see it. "But even if it was truly his intention to play the hero, he didn't managed to achieve that goal. It was prince Lex who saved my life that day."

"What are you talking about? How...Uncle Lex was the one who saved you?"

"Mercy, prince lex's guard was the one who killed the assassin, Not Damian. So in the eyes of public, Luthor's a hero in that story."

"But...that's not true."

"That's what people witnessed and that's what they'd believe."

Silence.

"But...I still don't believe it was him." Richard said a few moments later.

"We never said it was him, we're just being caution. Take Pandora for instance. You think she'd ever be corrupted by the evil if Gods would have taken precaution and prevented her from going near the box of sins? No, and look at the result of trusting a human blindly, she unleashed sins upon the world."

Bruce was merely weighting the pros and cons of the situation, Richard knew that. He was a victim of an assassination that night, he would be at edge and suspicious at everyone, well, more than usual. So why would he want to trust a fourteen year old soldier over the residents of the palace, who has been loyal to that kingdom for more than several years? For all Bruce knew, it might have been an act and Damian actually planned all of them to gain their trust. That was a possibility, which could be true. But he wasn't Bruce. His father didn't know the things he did, hadn't seen the thing he had seen. The fire in Damian's eye, the anger in his voice, the relief in his smile when he found Richard safe, those stuff didn't catch anyone's eyes but him. The punches he threw, the strength he pulled to get out of the hands holding him down, he didn't look like he was taking his time. There was no saying that he would survive the chandelier's incident's either, but he endangered his life for Bruce anyway. It was true, it has been only five months since Damian stepped a foot in the palace, but he wasn't the traitor. He just wasn't.

"I know, but Damian's not the one you should be caution about. I don't know who is, but it isn't him."

Bruce looked down at him. Richard tilted his head to hold his stare. "How are you so sure?" Bruce asked.

"I just...I don't know how to explain it, but...I just know okay. My instincts tell me it's true and I believe them."

"Instincts aren't the wisest option to govern your life with, son."

Richard pushed back against Bruce to look directly at his father, eye to eye, he was about to say stuff that needed his full attention, and eye contact seemed to be the most efficient weapon he had against people. For some reasons, nobody could lock eyes with him for more than a few seconds. "I trust my instincts, and they've never failed me before."

The corner of Bruce's lips curled up to form an amused grin. "You do realize you're ten, right?"

And that was supposed to mean he didn't have any experience in his life? So what? Age was a number.

"So? I can prove it to you."

"And how exactly?"

"Allow Damian to be my guard, and I'll prove you wrong. I'll prove both that my instincts are true and that Damian is innocent."

"Son_."

"No, just let him be near you, let him prove himself to you. Not everyone wants to kill the king. He just wants to serve this kingdom and the king and...and the Rastin king."

Bruce sighed and for the first time that day, he looked genuinely tired. He muttered his next words as his eyes were closed. "It's not that easy Richard." His eyes opened and icy blues, started right at his own. "I can't allow that."

"Why?"

"Because things are going to change from this day forward."

Bruce has returned to the cold and serious king Bruce mode again. That didn't sound any good.

"I've decided for you to live in the royal villa."

Silence. Richard stared with wide eyes at his father.

"You'll stay there and won't ever leave it unless I summon you. You won't attend the royal school. Me, Alfred, commander and the ones I choose will be your teachers."

"Bruce, that attack wasn't_."

"It's not about the attack. I've planned to do this, since the day we came to live here. That's the only way to protect you."

"Protect me from who?"

"From others noticing you."

Silence.

How come people noticing him would put him in to danger? Bruce was making no sense. He must have been more tired than he thought, yeah the bags under his eyes just proved him right. "Bruce, it's been a long day. Why don't we discuss that when we had enough sleep and aren't exhausted to say stupid stuff that make no sense?" He tried to plea, but was reprimanded by the eyes of disappointment and resentment. Richard dropped his stare back to his lap. He went too far.

When Bruce talked next, his voice was empty of his previous emotions. "This is your last day at the Wayne palace." His voice left no room for arguments there.

Maybe that was for the best, he wasn't all that keen in living in a palace either. But there was still one thing that bothered him ever since he walked a foot in those grounds.

_"You have to be the king. Bruce and I will build the path for you. You will assemble the fields of heaven once again and spread the God's word on it. You must be the true king."_

He could hear the king Thomas's words in the back of his mind, whispering matters of being a king one day to him, when he had asked to have a private meeting with him. Hearing that his father was going to be the next ruler of Gotham wasn't shocking enough, but king Thomas had to go all the way and act creepy, telling him that **Richard** had to be the future monarch. And then there was his own father, who has been considering keeping him from the praying eyes of the palace's residents, so he could protect him. On one hand, king Thomas had expected his grandson to be a king, on the other hand, Bruce wanted to keep his son away from the palace as much as possible. Thomas's words would echo through his head, reminding of the fate that was waiting upon him, but Bruce was trying to isolate him from that destiny.

He was so tired of people deciding for his fate, he wanted control over his own life, he wanted his own decisions.

"Fine." Richard said. "I'll do as you say, but I have a condition."

"You're in no position to demand a condition."

Richard just ignored him. "I want Damian with me in the villa."

"Richard you don't understand_."

"No **you** don't understand. From this day forward, my life's gonna be an isolation one, filled with tutors and people much older than me . You've been a prince for five months and I've barely been able to see you, and now that you're a king, you'll hardly be around anymore. You say I gotta understand, but why don't **you**?"

Silence.

"Bruce, please just trust me. I'll prove it to you, just let Damian be my guard." He pleaded again.

Bruce stared at him. A minute passed, but no respond came. Finally his father sighed and moved to slip under the sheets, he arranged the pillow and said. "I have a condition too." He pushed the blanket aside to make more room for his son, held one arm out for him and continued. "Cuddle with me?"

Richard didn't expected to hear that from Bruce, but was quick to jump into his father's arms once again. They had cuddled a lot of times together, but it was rare for Bruce to admit he wanted one. Who knew? That might have been their last night together like that. Just him and Bruce.

His father pulled the sheets up on them, planted a kiss on his forehead and scoped Richard closer to himself. The boy knew he was smiling like a fool, but it helped that Bruce was doing the same thing too. They really had a long day, filled with boredom, stress and injuries, but if it meant that it would eventually end like that, then he would gladly repeat that day all over.

Just him and Bruce, a warm embrace and no worries for what the future has held for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Greece mythology, Pandora was the first woman created as part of the punishment of humanity. She opened a jar and released all the evil in the world, leaving only hope inside and closed the door. "The foolish man" was identify as Epimentheus who was her husband.  
> The story that I've wrote was inspired by that Greece mythology and DC's Pandora ( Comic "Trinity of sin: Pandora ) It's a prequel of "Forever evil". It's actually pretty cool. I recommend it.  
> But if already know about both Pandora, then you'll be able to tell the difference of mine too. :) 
> 
> I just want to remind you that Dick is still a kid and I had to work with how a ten year old would reason things. Like how doctors grossed him, he'll realize one day that doctors save lives and that it's such a hard job. He's still learning. Be kind to my baby. He'll be better promise. :D
> 
> Let me know what you think of this story so far, or just this chapter.  
> But seriously, my posts are open to criticizes  
> If I'm doing something wrong, feel free to tell me. It'll help to write better chapter for you guys.  
> Thanks for reading!!! :)


	7. The set up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to note, these are the ages of the main characters, for right now.  
> Dick is 10, Jason is 11 ( Because he's a few month older than Dick, so after five months, he's 11) , Damian is 15 (the same as Jason), Bruce is 38 ( so 14 years ago, he was 24), Roy is 25 (14 years ago 11 ), Jade is 23.
> 
> I know it's a bit late, but I hope the length of the chapter would make up the late update.  
> Enjoy! :)

"You're touchy and sensitive, You'll get annoyed easily. You have a whole a lot of pride, but you're a softy inside."

That made the woman before him to giggle. Biting her lips, she looked sheepish at him. "That's right! How could you tell?"

Roy gave her a sly grin. "I'm the great fortune teller, Roy Harper, lady. I know everything. Remember to tell that your friends too."

"I will. To be honest, I didn't believe it when my neighbors told me about your...unique abilities, but now I see what she's been talking about."

"Yeah, well. I was blessed with this talent since birth. I'd be glad to use it to help people, but it takes a lot of energy out of me, and a guy's gotta eat, right? You understand that sweetheart, don't you?" Roy pushed his copper bowl her way while pointing to the little money in it. He purposely hadn't put the rest of his money there to appear poor, so she would take sympathy toward him and pay him a greater deal.

"Oh! Right." The woman brought a small leather bag out of the side of her clothes and happily, put three coins in Roy's bowl, that was enough to buy him and Jason a meal for the night. "Now tell me about my future, great Roy Harper." She sounded excited about the whole situation. Not like a woman, who claimed to have been dragged there because of her neighbor's pressure. Oh well, weren't all of them like that? All of the women, who came to him, **loved** to know about their fate, but would any of them admit in believing in those sort of stuff? Roy has dealt with enough women daily to know the answer to that.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to talk, the woman before him was pushed aside, rather forcefully. She fell out of the chair with a yelp. Roy was too shocked to give a respond, he just stared with wide eyes at the lady on the ground.

What just happened?

"You had enough for today." His vision was blocked by another figure sitting before him. "Now's my turn."

Were his eyes seeing correct? Was that Jade sitting in front of him?

She reached an index finger to close his mouth. He hadn't even noticed keeping them open until just then. "Am I right? Mr great Roy Harper?" Why did she sounded like she was making fun of his name? Oh wait, because she  **was**!

"Hey! Who the hell are you?" his customer stood up. Fuck. He almost has forgotten about her since the moment he lied eyes on Jade. Crap. He wasn't going to lose his customers because of her, he had two mouths to feed, didn't even need to mention that Jason himself, ate as much as three man did. Boy, could that kid's stomach ever be filled.

"I'm really sorry." Roy said. "I'll just..." One look from Jade was enough to send shivers to his back. The look, which said _'Don't you dare to leave me because of that old junk!'_ Yeah, he needed money, but Jade's punches hurt more than an empty stomach. He led out a defeated sigh and continued. "I'm sorry, but I think this lady's in a hurry."

"What?" The woman looked in disbelief at him. Roy kind of felt bad for doing that to her, but then his eyes would fall on Jade's serious expression, and all the sympathy would go away like that.

"You can come up here tomorrow. I still be here."

"Ugh!" With that, she ran off angrily.

"Don't forget to tell your friends too." Roy shouted after her.

She showed her middle finger to him without even turning back. So much for being a polite lady she was pretending to be, just two minutes ago. Roy could always give her money back and arrange a new appointment, but there was no guarantee that she would pay him the same amount she did that day anyway. Roy needed to eat, and there has been a long time since he had a drop of wine. So, sue a guy fro being stingy.

When he locked eyes with Jade, she was grinning mischievously at him. "The great Roy Harper, huh?"

"You know Jade, it'd be really nice to see you again, but not very nice if you keep scaring my customers away like that." He decided to change the subject since hearing Jade mocking him for the stupid title Jason has given him, was the last thing he wanted right then. Not that he was complaining about being called great something, but still, Jade.

She rolled her eyes and replied. "What customer? Even Jason makes more money than you, and he's drunk half of the times."

"Hey, it's not my fault he's a rebel boy. What do you expect a boy, whose first word was _'shit'_ , to be like when he's eleven?"

Jade said without missing a beat. "Have a bad mentor like you?"

Roy groaned. He didn't need reminder of the awful mentor he was for Jason that couldn't even preserve his student from wandering near alcohol. But what good could he have possibly done? Roy was unable to catch his student off from constant swearing in a holy place, what chances did he have in a corrupted city like Gotham? Drinking wine was the least crime Jason could have committed there. "Jade, you're not here to lecture me about parenting stuff. why are you here?"

She leaned a little closer, while giving him her famous cat like grin. "What? Aren't you happy to see me?"

Roy mimicked her action with his own grin. "Why of course, chief Nguyen, all the time. I've just been wondering, what gives me the honor of your visit to our cramped house?"

"Can't I just wanted to see the guy, who's our master now, without any specific reasons?" She tilted her head to a side, letting streams of dark hair to fall on her shoulder.  He had a sudden urge to travel his fingers along its length, to feel its silky softness beneath his skin. His eyes caught the hazel of her stare and he forced himself to push the feeling away, before he did something stupid.

He simply smiled wider and said. "You can, but that is, **if** I was at least one of your favorite persons here."

She stared at him blankly for a moment, mischievous grin long gone, before leaning back and giving a light chuckle. "You got me Roy."

For the slightest second, she had him believing there was a tiny hope for them, but then she went back on ridiculing him again, and all his dream castles came crashing down like an earth quick. He guessed his old crush on her hasn't faded as much as he wished it would. Even after all those years, Roy would still droll over her ecstatic eyes.

"Alright, enough with the small talk." Jade was back on her _'Chief Nguyen'_ persona again. "Barbara send me. There's been some stuff going on the palace, she went to starl halidom to inform the spiritualists there and since you're the master now, she thought you'd better know about it too."

"Wow. Thanks. You guys are so considered." He thought he sounded unimpressed enough to voice his sarcasm. Jeez, his own people presumed him as an idiot, some sort of **master** he was.

She gave another eye roll before saying. "You'd hear it anyway, rumors travel fast, but she thought you needed to know the true event and not the bullshit people whisper around. That's why I'm here."

"I'm all ears then."

"First of , the king...he's Bruce."

"Did you came here to tell me the name of the king? Wow, that's such an important matter."

That earned him a smack on the forehead. "No, you moron. He's not just Bruce! He's Bruce Wayne! The man, who saved your village from that bastard _'spiting cobra',_ remember? The same bastard, who kept turning your people into beast and...had taken me into slavery. That man, Bruce, who saved you and me, is the king of Gotham now."

Silence.

Almost fourteen years ago, around the time when their village was under attack by a powerful magic user, who went by the name  _'spiting cobra',_ spiritualist Dinah and Ted had returned to the halidom with an unconscious man, who was injured badly, and seemed to be at the edge of dying from blood loss. The residents at the halidom have healed his wounds, and to return the favor, the man helped them take the cobra bastard down, that man went by the name Bruce. That was how they had found Jade too, she was being enslaved there, abused in a sever way at a young age, if it wasn't because of Bruce, Roy would have never found her and heaven knew, what would happen to Jade the rest of her life. So, Roy could surely remember a man like him. That man served a great deal to his people, but he was a nobody. He didn't have any reputation as a champion, or a magic user or anything at all. He merely claimed to be a man, who was looking for the blade of Nightwing and a cure to undo his father's spell, but never mentioned his father being the king Thomas.

Roy just burst into laughter. "Yeah, you mean the man, who always wore black and was like _'I'm the vengeance, I'm the knight',_ could possibly be the all might king of Gotham, because that blood thirsty man I've met? Totally screamed royal family, right?" Even the idea of such a brooding man as the king was hilarious.

Jade crossed her arms, scowled at him and said nothing.

Roy's chuckle slowly died down. That intense look meant stuff were serious as hell, which meant...

"HOLLY SHIT!!!!" Realization hit him hard on the gut. "King Bruce is actually the same man, who was looking for the blade of Nightwing?" Could it be possible?

"Yes, I noticed it the first time he came to the palace. Turns out, he's the real son of king Thomas and queen Martha, and his father summoned him to announce Bruce, the heir to the throne, like, five months ago."

Roy felt like his jaw was peeking the ground.  The turtle snake's spiritualists in the Wayne palace knew about something as important as that and never gave a shit as to inform their master for fucking **five months**?!?! Roy needed to forget about the wine he was planning to buy. His people didn't care to take him serious when he was sober, let alone while they catch him drinking his ass out. He shook himself mentally to focus on Jade. "Just like that?"

"Well, obviously elderlies argue over Prince Luthor being the rightful heir to the crown, but King Thomas shut all of them down, it was his way or highway." She sounded awfully nonchalant about the whole idea.

Roy was still freaking out inside, the memories of an injured man, whose chest was ripped open by a siren, a man named Bruce, who fought with beast like it was his regular basis and spoke of vengeance in a way like it was the air he breathed, rolled in his head. He was still getting to grips with it.

It was such a small world.

Soon, Jade filled him in with the whole coronation event. Apparently, the king had been attacked by assassins, but this new soldier, who Jade insisted worked under her supervision, just burst inside in time to save him from drinking a poisonous wine, he also had helped with identifying those killers as the members of the league of assassins. But in the end, all the credits went to prince Luthor, because his guard has been the one, who had killed one of the attackers, and everyone had bought in to the story. That smelled fishy, for all he knew, it could have been a setup. Couldn't those shithead elderlies see that? How a bunch of idiots were able to posses a high place in the Wayne palace, was beyond Roy.

After filling him in with the event, Jade left for the palace again. She couldn't afford to stay any longer, she had duties and all, that girl was the chief after all. Not like she's stayed if he asked her either, Roy thought bitterly to himself.

**********

He spent an hour of loneliness, without even a customer to accompany himself with. It was pretty much a slow afternoon, no thief running away like mad, no men fighting like bulls, no women giggling pointlessly around, no nothing. It was a boring day. Roy might have as well just called it a day and closed off for a few hours. It didn't seem like Jason would be coming with a new customer anytime soon either.

Just as he was about to drift to sleep, his sweet rest was disrupted by the most annoying voice ever.

"Wake up ginger boy!" Harley shouted from above him.

Roy groaned and pulled the hood of his cloth over his head. He swore that high pitched voice, was the same scary witch's that haunted his nightmares.

But hiding underneath that layer of cloth didn't help to keep her voice low, it just made it worse as his action seemed to have pissed the blond girl off, because she started shouting even louder. "Move your fucking ass Harper!" Harley said while pinching his arm hard. Ow!

That had him bolting upward. "WHAT THE FUCK!!!" Ow! That really hurt. He rubbed his hand over his injured arm, it was starting to bite his skin. That sure was going to leave a nasty bruise. Roy wasn't being a baby then, he was a ginger head with an extremely pale skin, the slightest touches would leave marks on his body, not to mention how hard he has been pinched. That crazy Harley wouldn't hold back, especially when it boiled down to him. It was just Roy's luck to be at the center of a mad girl's pissing zone.

Harley just huffed and rolled her eyes. "Men are all babies."

Was she for real? He didn't even know why the hell he would ask that question anymore, it was crystal as the day that a crazy level to Harley's existed, she was the living proof of that. Just where did she pick a bone with him? That was the question he never found the answer for. Though, now that he thought about it, maybe it wasn't her. It has been the second time he had been smacked by a woman that day, so maybe it wasn't Harley after all, it was Roy himself. Just something about his ginger figures shouted allowance for women to take a free hit. When he asked heavens to be a lady's man, that wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

"What the hell man!" He frowned and threw his hands up. It was always too early for Harley's craziness.

"In case you hadn't noticed." She pointed toward her breasts. "I have these two babies with me here, you can't call me man."

"Oh God." Roy put his hands on his face to just bury himself there, he didn't need that mental image of Harley's breasts. What pleasure did that woman take from torturing him?

She threw her arm around his shoulders to pull him closer, gave him a toothy grin and said. "A pretty picture for a dirty dream, right?"

Roy pushed her face out of his own. "No." But before she could press her boobs to his face and start whining _'Why? But look how good they are!'_ Just to prove him wrong, because she most definitely would, he changed the subject. "What do you want Harley?"

"'Oh! Right!" She cleared her throat. "Yo, Harper, I saw these dudes dressing in green, covering their faces and all. Think they're the league?"

"What? Where are they?"

She dragged him toward the plaza, where he indeed found some green dressed ninjas, riding on their horses, guarding a carriage. They indeed were the league's warriors. He turned toward Harley. "Couldn't you say that sooner?"

She shrugged and gave him an unimpressed look. "Meh, I did it anyway, so."

He huffed. "Never mind, come on now."

They tried to follow those green dudes as subtle as they could, which proved to be pretty easy. Harley just acted her normal way, which was to swing a bucket of cookies and shout "Cookies! Sweet delicious cookies everyone!" And Roy played it off by pretending to be a normal guy, just wandering in a plaza and checking out the various shops, careful not to act suspicious.

Those leaguers didn't seem to pay any attention their way, like they were so sure that no one would do something as stupid as following them. They seemed to be confident that nobody would recognize them as the assassins of a villainous organization. Well, why should they? They were a secret that not a lot of people knew about. They could easily walk in a plaza full of crowd and not be identified, unless you were from the starl village of course.

The ninjas entered the prince Luthor's residence. Technically, it was only one of the prince's many residences. Those rich folks had the luxury to afford those kind of stuff. But, wait! How could he follow them in Luthor's house then? He was too big and obvious to sneak in there without being noticed. He had a red head for heaven's sake, he could be spotted at the darkest hour easily, let alone in the middle of the day light. Fuck his luck!

Just as Roy thought things were getting any worse, he heard the familiar voice of his boy. "If you wanna know your future, come to the great fortune teller, Roy Harper People." Jason shouted and waved his red flag in the air.

Perfect. That sneaker was just the perfect person to do his dirty work for him. Roy grabbed the hem of his collar to yank him, Jason stumbled back while shouting "What the fuck_!" But when he saw his teacher, he swallowed the rest of his sentence.

"Roy wh_." He tried to talk, but was shushed by Roy. His student raised a confused eyebrow at him. Roy looked around to make sure they weren't getting unwanted attention, you could never tell if someone was reading your lips or not in there. Nothing in that city was real, especially its people. Roy himself demonstrated to be a simple fortune teller, but in reality, he was the master of starl village, more importantly, the guardian of turtle snake, but one look at his attire and no one would care to give him a second thought. That was exactly what Roy was aiming for too, but the point still stood. You could trust nobody.

Jason read through him and whispered. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He wanted to pinch Jason's cheek for being smart like that. He knew Roy would never leave his spot, where a customer would arrive any second, which meant it must have been something serious. His little student was growing up so fast, he couldn't be more proud of him at the moment, but he had more important stuff at hand to take care of, namely the green dudes, who were walking another mysterious dude in that carriage.

Roy looked their way and Jason followed his stare. He used that opportunity to push the dark haired boy toward them. Jason, who was caught off guard, stumbled forward. After managing to secure his footing again, he turned to give his teacher a nasty glare. Jason had received the message, he knew he had to follow those dudes and tell Roy what he has seen afterward, but it didn't mean that he was okay with being tricked into spying for him without a heads up. If it was anyone else, that glare would have been intimidating, but Roy has seen it enough for the glare to lose its effect on him.

Jason walked beside a woman containing a basket of fruit, he grabbed an apple and stuck close to the lady as she entered the Luthor's residence. He dropped his head down and went inside along with her, pretending to be her kid. Jason was lucky that the lady didn't give a fuck as to manifest him, but all in all, that was a smart move. He was just a kid following his mother around, nothing to raise suspicious to the green dude ninjas. Well done Jaybird, Roy made a mental note to give the boy a proper meal that night.

"I could totally do that." Harley said while munching a cookie in her mouth from behind him. He was so focused on the green dudes before him that he had forgotten about her. But what use did she have for him anyway. She was just as obvious and big as Roy himself when it came to being sneaky.

He gave a sneer. "Yeah, right." Like she could possibly do that. Managing to keep your body from making any sounds, was a hard task, which wasn't a job made for anyone, especially if you were Harley, the girl who wanted to announce her existence to the world every five minutes.

Roy didn't now how Jason did that, being an expert at skulking and moving like a ghost, he used to think it was because of his small figure that he had the ability to blend with his surrounding and avoid being noticed. But then he got older and his habit never seemed to cease. With a kid like that, it was a miracle they were able to hide the story of the son of heaven from him for ten years.

They waited a few good minutes before Jason was casually leaving the prince's residence. What the fuck was that kid doing? Didn't he have a brain? He would get caught like that!

His fear became reality as one of the guards walked behind his student to put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Hey kid, who are you?" Jason froze. Great. They ere fucked up now. Roy took back everything he said about Jason's intelligence. That kid knew no shit, he had a long way at being something near the line of Harley's intellectual level.

"Um..." His dark haired boy was lost for words. He slowly turned to face the soldier, who had a rigid hold on his shoulders. "Nobody." His back was toward Roy and he couldn't see the face he was making anymore. Damn it.

"What were you doing in there?"

"Uh...delivering food?" Roy was at a safe distance from them. He could interfere and buy his student some time to run. He could perhaps bump his body to the guard or start shouting or anything so the guard's attention would be off of his little boy for a second. Long enough to save Jason.

"What's your name boy?" The guard narrowed his eyes at him.

"Uh..." Jason, that poor boy that no idea what to do in situations like that. He could probably come up with a hundred ways to ditch the guard and run away anytime, but at the moment his fear took the better of him and didn't let him think properly.

The guard proceeded to garb Jason's arm. It was time to act Roy, he told himself, but before he could take a single step, Jason beat him to it.

The dark haired boy shouted. "HOLLY SHIT! A NUDE WOMAN!" Just as the man turned to look at the direction Jason was pointing, his student used that opportunity to free his hand and just as instantly, pulled the guard's pants down to his ankles.

The man yield in surprise and tried to cover his hairy legs as Jason started running as fast as he could. Around the time that the guard could pull his pants back, his Jaybird was far enough not to be detected anytime soon.

People started laughing at the man, whose pants were loose enough to be pulled down easily in the middle of the day light. He swore a bit and tried to tie the fabric tighter around his waist.

Roy couldn't stop his own laughter, he could never in a million years come up with an escape plan like that. No amount of body bumping or shouting could buy that much time and work as a distraction as the one Jason just pulled, did.

True, the kid could be hot-headed sometimes, but he sure knew how to be a survivor. Roy wouldn't worry much if his student got into some troubles anymore. Not that he has ever doubted his little boy, shut up the voice from inside.

"That brat!" The guard shouted and proceeded to walk. "I'm gonna beat the shit out of_." Harley tripped him over and caused the furious man to fall with his head on the ground. People's laughter grew louder, the guard's face flushed with embarrassment, he swore again and stood to glare at them, searching for the one that tripped him like that. When his eyes landed on Roy, the ginger man pointed toward a wrong direction.

"That way." The man grunted and ran off after Jason.

"Should we be worried that our Jaybird knows about a man's weakness at a very young age?" Harley asked after their laughter ended. She was referring to Jason shouting _'A NUDE WOMAN'_ to distract the guard.

"Nah. He has eyes and people of this city aren't exactly subtle when it comes to dirty encounters, if you know what I mean. He's a quick leaner."

"I hate it when I can't argue with you."

Roy knew he was grinning like a fool by the mention of that.

**********

They found Jason at Diana's smithy, checking the arrows at product. Roy wondered, how could a woman like Diana, who had almost an army of men working under her supervision, allow a boy like Jason to wander off his place every time he pleased. He was quite sure no one else had that kind of permission. She must have been very fond of his little student after all. According to Jason, Diana was his first friend in Gotham, but how an adult lady could manage to make friends with a small kid, was a wonder to Roy. Especially since he knew Jason didn't look up to her as a sister, he saw her more like a hero of some sort, or perhaps an early teenage crush.

One glance at the blacksmith just told him why. That woman screamed of power and grace, even though she was working a job, which required manly quality more than anything. Although her leather dress was always messy and had stains of smoke on it, it didn't lessen anything from her beauty. No wonder Jason was all over her all the time. Diana didn't seem to mind him either. She probably saw the sincere admiration in Jason's eyes. She enjoyed Jason's company, to the point that she got his little student a peer of wealthy leather boots. Roy was glad his boy has found her, she was a good influence on Jason. The brat mostly behaved his best while being at her present.

Roy wasn't sure if he was jealous or not, but he grabbed the hem of Jaybird's collar somewhat forcefully and sat the boy down to give him a report.

After a good measure of shouting and sending death glares, Jason started talking. He described the mysterious guy in the carriage as an man in his early elderly, with white stubble and pointy hair style, he said it was like a set of horns or something, the aforementioned man had green eyes and brown hair and carried a well-designed Katana. Who did he know to have those qualities and hang out with the league of assassins? Why of course, the head of that villainous organization, Ra's Al Ghul. But what was **he** doing in prince Luthor's residence?

As far as Jason knew, a bald man, who was the one and only, prince Lex, and Ra's shared some drinks and talked about the success of Luthor's plan. In the end, they said something in the line of _'Hail the demon's head'_   and winded up the meeting.

It must have something to do with the recent attack on the king. Jade just informed him earlier that day, that king Bruce was victimized in a poisoning and assassination attack on his coronation. the invaders were identified as the leaguers, so Ra's was definitely involved. But then prince Luthor turned out to be the hero of the story and Al Ghul would come to have a drink with the elder prince.

Roy might not have been the smartest man of all, but even someone as crazy as Harley would see that the event was fishy. Luthor had obviously planned the attack in the first place, for what reasons, Roy didn't know. Maybe he wanted to be a hero and praised by authorities. Maybe he wanted to buy his brother's trust somehow or perhaps he was after the throne. Roy couldn't read his motives, because whatever his reasons were, he had saved the day in the end. So he had to investigate that further to be sure. He wished he could hear their conversion himself, then he might have caught some clues, which Jason didn't bear as necessary, he was an eleven year old after all.

He needed to tell what he has found out that day to Jade, to Barbara or anyone who would deliver his message to the king. If the king was the same Bruce, whom he had met all those years ago, then his life would be more precious to him than it was before. They had to let Bruce know that his older brother was planning something behind his back, Roy and his people owned the man that much.

**********

 

  _ **14 years ago**_

_They've lost a new one. He could see it in Oliver's eyes, in the way he knitted his eyebrows down, moved his jaw to aside and mostly, the way he refused to look anyone in the eye. His master's silence spoke of the agony in his throat._

_They've lost another of their own._

_Roy heard priestess Stephanie and Barbara talking about it one day. They said that those lost folks couldn't come back to the village. They said that their people were lost, but not in the way, which meant death or disability to navigate their halidom, they meant lost in their minds. Barbara said that they could no longer think properly as a human being, and they would always be enslaved to their supernatural shapes. Priestess Barbara talked and Roy felt scared, because like an oracle, she was always right. Goosebumps would be send up to his spine every time she talked, because he was afraid that her thoughts would come true, which they did ninety percent of the time, just like an oracle's did._

_Roy had no idea what she was referring to, until the day priestess Harley shouted "THEY TURN INTO BEASTS?!?!" If it wasn't for her, Roy would have never found out about their lost folks. That why were some of their people mysteriously getting lost, or why Barbara said they were enslaved to their odd shapes, wondered what exactly **did** happen to their absent folks. Thanks to Harley, he knew then, their lost people had turned into beasts and therefor, couldn't come back home anymore._

_No wonder Dinah didn't allow him to wander along the village alone. She knew about that horrible event too. But, she would have told him about it. Yeah, she totally would have if she wasn't busy aiding that injured guy, whom she had rescued along with spiritualist Ted, Roy repeated with himself. Dinah wasn't reserved like Oliver, she would've never kept secrets from him, she was just busy helping that wounded man, Roy didn't allow himself to think otherwise of her.  
_

_She and the healers of starl halidom had been trying their best to wake the man up, he was alive though, Roy knew that, but according to Dinah, he has been under the spell of a blood magic user for some time. The injured man wasn't going to wake up, even if his wounds were completely healed, but Dinah didn't give up. She and priestess Stephanie attended his wounds and tried every single spell breaker they knew on him. Eventually, one of Stephanie's many portions worked, and the injured man got free from the spell, which was preventing his wounds to heal properly, but there was only one problem._

_The man was still unconscious. His wound took a while to heal, and Dinah has said that his body and mind needed to recover too. So she was pretty much occupied and couldn't make time to think about smaller issues like Roy._

_Things went on as their usual routine for a while. Their people kept getting lost and returned as beasts, Dinah and Ted went to the cave near their village to train combat, Oliver would scowl and get in arguments with the said priestess, but would never cease to cancel their archery lessons, or failing to be a good mentor when it boiled down to teaching him surviving methods. Never ever had Oliver gotten mad at him over archery lessons since the day he handed Roy a bow. So, despite the stuff going on around their halidom, Roy could say things were pretty normal as they could get. Up until the day the injured man woke._

_After two weeks, he woke up to a different surrounding and started freaking out, eyes growing wide and pushing himself up from his place on the bed, but as soon as Dinah came up to him, he seemed to be calming down a bit. He drew a hand out and pushed it through the golden hair of the priestess's. "Yellow." He said._

_Roy arched an eyebrow. Yellow? Was that man daydreaming? Dinah didn't seem to mind as she kept soothing him. "That's right, My hair's yellow. It's yellow, alright?" She forced a glass of water down his throat. The man drew a deep breath inside his lunges and twisted his face in pain. Right, his chest was ripped open just two weeks ago, It must have sucked to take a deep breath after receiving such a sever injury. Roy couldn't imagine the agony the man had to suffer when his body was fighting against death. He must have been a strong man to have withstand for as much as he did after all._

_Dinah held the injured man's hand tight the whole time, which just seemed to be deepening his master's frown. What was Oliver scowling about? He was merely a man, who was injured and needed their help, what harm could he have possibly done to them?_

_"Alright, enough with this shit." Oliver stepped in. "Who are you?" His master went straight to the point._

_The man looked around, seeming to be noticing his surrounding just then. He was slowly coming back to the world of reality. "Where_." He cleared hi throat, his voice must have been hoarse from not being used for two whole weeks. He tried again. "Where am I?" He sounded better this time, but just as husky._

_"You're not the one asking the questions here." Oliver crossed his arms, raised his chin to appear more intimidating._

_The aforementioned man looked blank at him, he didn't appear fazed or effected by his glare. Maybe it was the fact that he was too tired to show any emotions then, but whatever it was, he was almost too calm for a man in his position. He was in an unknown place with unknown people staring down at him and one angry man sending glares his way, not to mention the awful injuries he had right then. How could he manage that emotionless look?_

_The aforesaid man turned his attention to Dinah, who was still holding his hands as hard. "Where am I? He asked again._

_But before she could respond, Oliver stepped closer and raised his tone. "Are you seriously deaf? I said I'm the one_."_

_"Ollie!" Dinah called him with a warning behind his name, it was the same tone she used whenever she wanted to reprimand Roy for behaving wrong. He guessed Dinah just considered all men as much as a kid as she presumed Roy to be. Or maybe it was just Oliver that she preserved that opinion for, his master seemed to be the only one, who could manage to bring that side of her out after all._

_Oliver's glare was then directed toward the priestess. She didn't back down from its intensity, and held it just as strong. She continued without breaking eye contact. "He just woke. You can't be seriously demanding some answers now. let the man to breath a bit."_

_"He's been breathing for two weeks here. Now that he's awake, it's time for some answers."_

_"He's an injured man! It's not like he's going to run away. You'll get your answers eventually, but for now, it's not the right time."_

_"I'm the master of this halidom and **I** decide when's the right time for an interrogation."_

_And there they went again. Oliver and Dinah arguing over something stupid. what was worse, was that none of them would be willing to give up for the other. Since the day Roy has stepped a foot in that halidom, those two tended to make the smallest things into something major and fight about it for as long as they could, until one of them would punch the other in the guts, and only then would they turn in ignoring each other again, up to the point, where they started arguing one more time, and the story would repeat over and over again. That was the only way they would pay attention to each other. That was true if Roy omitted the sneaky looks his master would send her way whenever she was pulling the stunts she had learned. Roy would roll his eyes every time they did that, it was getting pretty boring to be honest and Roy was an eleven year old kid. How could **they** not get tired of this?_

_The injured man freed his hand from her grip and proceeded to sit upward. Dinah turned her whole attention to the blond man in front of her then, the wounded man already forgotten._

_The man groaned and gritted his jaw hard enough to have made his lips twist and puffed his cheeks. When he manged to sit properly, he immediately grabbed the nearest cloth he could reach and stood up. He put a hand on his chest, opened his mouth and huffed and few times, breathing seemed to be hard on the man._

_Roy slowly approached him. "Are you...okay?" He asked with a small voice._

_The man looked down at him and wow, he was really tall, even with his back being bent a little forward. Surprisingly, with a face that was twisted in pain, the guy was more intimidating than Oliver. Who was his master trying to scare with that blond mustache of his?_

_"...Water..." The man finally said with that sore voice of his._

_Roy quickly tried to pour some water in a pottery glass, but his hands were shaking and the liquid would slip from the glass. Suddenly, the jug of water was snatched from his hands by the aforesaid guy, he drank straight from it like he was a drained man. It has been two weeks since he drank anything, Roy wasn't sure how Dinah fed him, but he guessed it couldn't have been the most pleasant way or food of all either. But the guy was drinking fast, his pace was worryingly quick, even though his situation was understandable. With that pace he would hurt his stomach..._

_"Ugh!" The jug was slipped from his hand down and broken into pieces, its sound killed all the noises in the room. Everyone turned to look at the new guy clutching his stomach, kneeling before Roy. Dinah rushed toward him._

_"Hey, hey. Are you alright? What happened?" Dinah asked while trying to make the guy to sit back on the bed. The aforesaid man more or less stood up and walked back to the bed slowly and half bent down, holding his stomach in pain._

_Roy didn't mean for that to happen. He merely wanted to help, but before he could warn the guy of the consequences, it was too late._

_**********_

_After they found out about what Roy had done, they kicked him out of the man's room to aid him without interference. Nobody scowled or reprimanded him for doing something reckless, but Roy guessed it was because they blamed themselves for it more than they did Roy. It was somehow right to think that way, because if they weren't so busy arguing and actually had the decently to pay attention to the matter at hand, the poor guy wouldn't have been more injured than he already was. It was their responsibility to take care of the man, he wasn't conscious enough to notice its empty stomach or anything, he just felt thirsty and drank the whole jug, before Roy could even open his mouth to give the guy a warning. At first Dinah and Oliver were going to bench him for life, but priest Ted Grant came to his rescue._

_"Don't you two dare to open your mouths and blame it on the kid, it's all on you. If you weren't busy fighting each other like the children you are, and paid your damn attention to the man you were fighting about, this whole thing wouldn't have happened. So don't you fucking dare to say a single word to that kid. I'm sick of your little cat and dog play, every single fucking time you two open your mouths, just some bullshit would come out. And Oliver, quit acting like a jealous girlfriend."_

_Harley and Dinah sneered at that. Ted turned his head toward them. "Stop laughing young lady. You're at fault just as much as the mustache guy over there is. You call yourself a mentor and start bad mouthing in front of an injured man? Right where Roy could see you?" Dinah dropped her head in shame."Listen up both of you knuckle heads, if Ii ever see you two fight over anything, I repeat **anything,** then I'm gonna kick both of your asses myself, got it?"_

_Surprisingly, Ted's speech had them coming to their senses. They kept quiet and kicked Roy out of the injured man's room , so he wouldn't have to hear them swear anymore if it came to that. Roy didn't mind that, really, but an order was an order. He was kicked out, but rather politely that time._

_But that wouldn't stop the ginger head from being curious and sneaking in to hear what they were talking about. They had kept enough secrets from him as it was already, He wasn't going to just sit back and let them hide him in the dark anymore._

_So Roy used his small body to his advantage to sneak inside. He sat on the rooftop, which led to the room the man was staying, there was a window there on the roof that would always be a little open, because the room beneath didn't have another opening to bring some air inside. Roy walked on his tip toes toward it, careful not to alert the people beneath him that there was a rat walking on their rooftop. He crawled up the rest of the way to the split in the window, where the voices were coming from._

_"They're called sirens." He heard Oliver's voice." They're some kind of sea creatures, but unlike what you've heard in the myths, they're not the lovey mermaids, who sing happy songs and are there to please men. They're actually pretty dangerous."_

_"Do explain more." He heard a husky voice. It was probably the new guy's voice._

_Dinah continued for him. "Some of our priests had experience with their kind. They describe them as creatures with beautiful features, who lure sailors with their enchanting music, have powerful fins, which has sank many ships, and posses sharp claws that could break bones."_

_"How did she used blood magic on me?" The husky voice came again._

_"We don't know how it works for sirens yet, but for blood magic to work, you need to draw blood out obviously, no matter the creature you are."_

_"But what she did to you, wasn't blood magic." Oliver said. "If it was, you'd be dead by now."_

_Silence._

_"Could you explain what exactly did happen to you?" Dinah's voice came as dubious. Roy pressed his back against the wall next to the window to get comfortable. From the sound of it, they were going to have a hell of a discussion that night._

_"I...was looking for the...for something...a fisher man told that I'd find what I was looking for in that river, but then I heard a woman singing and...saw some stuff...and before I knew it, I was going to jump in the water, but then that woman came out and clawed at my chest. I automatically pulled my shuriken out and ...I think I managed to hurt her...then she just...pushed my boat, I don't know...she did something and my boat started moving till it hit a rock and...and the wound felt weird...like nothing I've felt before...and the last thing I saw was..."_

_Yellow. The man didn't say anything, but the unspoken word was clear through his silent. Dinah's golden hair was the last thing he saw before going unconscious, so it explained why he only calmed when when Dinah arrived. He saw yellow again._

_"Did you draw her blood out or not?" Oliver asked._

_"I think I did."_

_"What the hell do you mean **you think**? Did you make her bleed or not?"_

_"She was holding her forearm, so I couldn't see right."_

_"What, you're actually blind too?" What was his master's deal with that guy? Why was he so wary of him all the time?_

_Silence stretched between them. Roy could just imagine the scene down there easily. His master had his arms crossed, eyes narrowed and was glaring at the man before him. While the aforementioned guy would stare blankly at him with his emotionless expression. The atmosphere must have been pretty awkward down there. Roy was glad he didn't have to be there to endure the uncomfortable situation._

_Nobody would talk.They were all quiet, seeming to be waiting for the man's respond. No one dared to break the silent, maybe it was for the better, because for one, it wold give the man enough time to collect his temper and choose his next words with caution. Roy knew that Dinah definitely didn't want to be forced to kick the man out of the halidom if he snapped and did something stupid to anger Oliver._

_The man finally spoke. "I certainly stabbed her, but I was merely too focused on my own wounds to notice hers. Everything happened too fast. And I'm not educated on their body function, so I couldn't say for sure that I drew blood from her or not, but she seemed in pain. I think I might have hurt her in a way."_

_"But you did. You managed to make her bleed too. If you hadn't, then you'd be dead by now." Roy heard Dinah's voice._

_"What do you mean by that? How does this...blood magic work?"_

_"It's a curse that requires a magic user and a weapon, or anything sharp that could rip skin and tear blood out. The spell is whispered to the weapon, and that said weapon is used to draw the blood of its victims out. In the end, you'd either be under the magic user's spell, or you'd be dead. Even if just one single drop of your blood fell on the said weapon."_

_"Are you feeling enslaved now?" Oliver mocked._

_The man just ignored him. "What does it have to do with her blood?"_

_"If you managed to stab her and drew her blood out, you would die anymore. That is, **if** her blood was dropped on her bloody claws too. As far as I know, if the magic user's and the target's blood  would fall on the cursed weapon, then the blood of the sorcerer and the target would meet and they would be bonded together. In that case, neither of them could kill the other one."_

_Roy felt sick of all the mentions of blood, ripping and claws. Those words were too much for his bright imagination. Suddenly, the copper smell of the window's irons, were too much to breath next to, they would just add to the violence pictures in his head and make them more realistic. He wanted to gag and run away from there, but his curiosity took the better of him. He gulped the vomit down his throat and held his breath till the topic of their discussion would change. There was just something about that mysterious man that called for attention somehow. Roy couldn't resist his curiosity._

_"So...she can't kill me, and we're bonded together...does that mean that I could find her?"_

_"I heard it's possible. That if you drop your blood on the ground, the said magic user could find you, but it's merely a rumor, there's no definitive proof to confirm its occurrence. And in your case, it was a siren. I'm pretty sure those creature can't last on land, so just, don't try it, okay?" Dinah's voice came quite gentle to Roy's ears. She was very caution with that man ever since she and spiritualist Ted, brought his injured body to the halidom. She's been taking care of him day and night, Roy had barely seen her leaving is side for long. When he asked, she would give him the same answer 'He needs help'. The ginger haired boy didn't know the state she had found the aforesaid man, but whatever it was, it must have been pretty awful to leave a determination like the one she had for the man._

_"Any idea why she was after you?" His master asked._

_Silence._

_"What were you doing in those waters in the first place?" The interrogation has finally started._

_"Looking for someone."_

_"In the waters?" His master wouldn't be convinced by the man's answers._

_"In a cave, which was located in those waters."_

_"The only water cave around here, is the one our spiritualists go. And I'm guessing you weren't looking for them, were you?"_

_"Depends if your spiritualists know something about people with owl masks."_

_"Owl masks?"_

_Silence. Roy assumed everyone were then looking at Dinah and Ted, seeking answers from them, because as far as he was concerned, there was only one water cave near their village and the only people, who would visit there, were priestess Dinah and priest Ted. So the questionable looks would be send their way._

_"I've never heard of them. Who are they?" Dinah finally said._

_The sounds of a door opening and closing rather harshly came to Roy's ears. Someone's heavy footsteps echoed through the wooden floor._

_"What is it John?"_

_"Another one Ollie. We've fucking lost another one." John Diggle's furious voice reached him. They've lost a new one. Another life was doomed. A new beast was unleashed among humans, The situation was getting out of their hands. If that shit continued, then soon, there wouldn't be anyone left from their village.  
_

_"Damn it. Who is it this time?" Oliver said while more pacing sounds came. Oliver was leaving the room along with Diggle._

_"Ollie_." Dinah tried to speak but was cut off by someone. Most likely by Oliver's hand motion to be quiet._

_"Tommy. Tommy Merlyn." The door closed harshly behind them again and all the voices died down the room._

_Roy sighed and hugged his arms around his knees. Tommy was Oliver's best friend. He couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for his master to deal with the loss of his best pal like that. Roy couldn't even picture anything happening to either Dinah or Oliver himself, let alone live with the fact that they had turned into hideous monsters._

_"Is your village under attack?"_

_"I...we don't know yet...It's just...some sort of invasion, I don't know yet..." Dinah's voice wasn't stable. Of course it wouldn't. Tommy Merlyn was her friend too. It was a good thing she could stand then, let alone being able to form words._

_"'Somebody's killing your people?"_

_"No...not killing, but...they're turning them into beasts."_

_"How could you tell? Have you seen one of them transforming by yourself?"_

_"...Yes, I've seen them...they...they go missing first, and then some God awful horrifying creatures appear that has the same clothes as our lost folks and you know what's worse? To have to recognize their faces, deep in their deformed shape **while you're trying to split their throats apart**!"_

_Roy put his hands on his mouth to avoid letting out the gasp and the scream, which were threatening to come out. Of fucking course they'd kill those monsters, what did he expect them to do? To capture those lost folks, put a chain on their necks and tame them? They couldn't allow a savage beast to stay loose so it could tear innocent people apart. But still, that was a bitter truth, especially since they knew they had to put their own friends down for good too._

_"Do you know your invaders?"_

_"Not yet."_

_"Do you suspect anyone?"_

_"'I...no. who would hate us to that point? We're just the spiritualists of the turtle snake. We're not all that known either, who would want to mess with a peaceful village?"_

_"Someone who resent peace." He said it like a statement, but it sounded like a question to Roy's mind. "Are all those lost people from your village or your halidom?"_

_"The halidom **is** part of our village." Why was Dinah the only one who was talking to that man? Weren't anyone else present in the room? Roy just wanted to go down there and sit her down a bit. She was pushing herself too hard. She just had lost her friend, she needed comfort, not interrogation._

_"I meant that, are ordinary people of your village getting lost too, or are they from your halidom?"_

_"Ha...halidom. I guess."_

_"Then it's not your village that is under attack. It is the priests and the priestesses that are the targets."_

_The spiritualists? That actually made a lot more sense. How did they not noticed that? The way that the aforesaid man just revealed their invader's purpose seemed pretty easy. Like it was a fact, the answer to a mystery, which was right under their noses all along, and that man just picked it up with the first glance. Wow, if that didn't make Roy feel stupid, then he didn't know what else would._

_"How could you tell? It hasn't been a day since you woke up in starl." Priest Ted said. Finally! someone else was talking! "And you're already making assumption about our attacker. And you seem pretty fast at it. How can we be sure, you're not one of them? One of our invaders? Give us a reason to trust you."_

_"Your master's right. I'm no man to trust, but your people has been kind to me so far. They've helped me, aided my wounds and fed me, which I'm sincerely grateful for. I wanna thank you, to repay you, but I'm afraid I have nothing valuable to offer. So, I'm asking you to let me help with your problem. The life I've chosen, has no guarantee about my well being. So, I don't wanna die while I know that I own someone."_

_"Your moralities aren't assuring enough, young man."_

_"You're Ted, right? The man who saved me along with Dinah. You saw my wounds, you saw me dying too. You know it, whatever I do, whoever's side I am, I'm just a vulnerable man, who could get killed. If you'd feel the smallest, even the slightest betrayal in me, then by all means, feel free to kill me off anytime."  
_

_"You realize, you just signed your own death, right?"_

_"I don't doubt my intentions, sir."_

_Silence. They weren't still convinced._

_The man continued. "The owl masked men, the one's I'm searching for, they're magic users as well. I was informed that they've been seen here. I might as well find some clues regarding them. This is a two ways path."_

_"So, you're merely trying to help yourself."_

_"I don't see it that way. I see that I could hit two birds with one stone, and I'd take that chance."_

_"Who are these people with owl masks? Why are you looking for them?"_

_"They have something of mine, of my nation...and of my family. I need to take it back."_

_"What is it?"_

_Silence._

_"We'll get there eventually, but for now, the only thing left, is an Oliver to persuade." Ted said.  
_

_"I think I could handle that."_

_"Well, good luck, Bruce...?"_

_"'Wayne. Bruce Wayne." The name had a rhythm. Roy felt like he would never forget a face and a name like that.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was absolutely necessary. This chapter would expand the plot and therefore, needed to be here. Especially since it had a flashback. I had to put the flashback on it, because it is the story of Bruce and how he fell in love with Clark and found Dick, so his history is related to Dick, Damian and Jason's story in a way. (Yep, all of their lives)
> 
> I promise for better chapters, with more DickDami and JayDick centering it. The plot is huge, but in the end, it's a love story, so stay tuned.
> 
> Next chapter, we're gonna have DickDami, for the whole part!  
> Thank you for reading. I can't wait to hear your wonderful thoughts about it. :)


	8. We run in our dream, but would ride when we're awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a flashback.  
> If you remember chapter one and the story of the lioness and the panther, right after the panther was turned into a human by the devil, she started a war with other tribes, so Arien decided to stop her, he took away her power of fire and gave it to Jacinda. But she still kept fighting and got wounded during one battle, Arien healed Damiana's wounds and asked her to join him, she fell in love with him and the rest. This flashback covers after that proposal. So, you gotta know the story first before reading it. Only the flashback is about that, the rest is pure DickDami centered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it hadn't been clear, here's a note to clarify stuff for the sake of the story.  
> Jason is the reincarnation of Jacinda ( The lioness ), Damian is the reincarnation of Damiana ( The black-panther), And Dick is the reincarnation of Arien (The son of heaven) 
> 
> That's it for now. Enjoy! :)

_Damiana ran. She ran faster than she has ever done in her life. She wanted to get there as soon as she could. Her lunges were burning, her mouth felt dry, every single inhale felt like a sharp knife to her throat, but she still kept running. She couldn't waist a moment any longer. She didn't want to miss anymore seconds away from her beloved. Every single minute without him in her life, was worthless. So, she held her spear tighter and kept running._

_Her clothes were soaked to her body, immense heat was emitting from her, it wasn't as hot as her fire, but still warm. She knew that the heat was from her heart, from her veins. Her heart knew its beloved, it didn't need a hellish creature to gift it fire for it to burn, the thought of her God would ignite her whole being in seconds.  
_

_She kept running, running from her village, from the hisses of the demon, from the hellish monsters she called people, from the river of blood she left behind, from her anger, from her lonely heart. She kept running, she would either get to her beloved, or die on her way to him._

_She was tired and sick. She just wanted to get to him as fast as she could. That was the only place she'd feel the paradise again, the only heaven she would be send to. Where there was no more hell creature telling her what to do, no more demon hissing next to her ear of horrible sins, no more killing, no more anger, no more destructive fire, just the heat of his voice and his warm touches. That was where she would eventually rest, she told herself._

_She would die to reach there. She would kill a nation to get to him. She did it with the panther tribe. When the nasty folks of her tribe dared to speak out a word about her beloved, about arranging a war against him, killing him, taking her powers back, she killed them all. She teared every single living flesh in that tribe with her spear. She would do that again if she had to. How dare those God awful creatures say the name of her beloved on their disgusting tongues? She didn't want her powers, she willingly gave them to him. He demanded and she knelt before him, her God, her friend, her savior, her heaven._

_He hasn't forgotten about her, he knew his black-panther. He still wanted her back. Damiana didn't deserve his mercy. She disobeyed his order, she left the cave, made a deal with the devil, conquered the tribes, killed thousand lives and spread sins to the God's land. But then he would save her life, treat her warmly and invite her to join him again, because he has missed her, because he hasn't lost faith in her. He has missed her, she repeated with herself, still believed in her. Damiana wasn't worthy of his forgiveness, but she kept running. How could she not run when the son of heaven called her like that? She would fly to him if he asked too._

_She would run to him, to be of his people, his people, his friend, his panther, his fighter, his sword, the mother of his children, his prayer, his fire. She would aid her people, provide their food, protect their families and learn how to love from them. She would learn to love her beloved's clay people, she would be their leader, would try to be better for them. He believed in her. He knew she could do that. Arien told her himself while she was assisting her wounds in the cave. She has never felt as human as when she was with him ever since her transformation.  
_

_By the time she arrived to the lion tribe, Arien was already gone. She went looking for him in the woods. She let the fire in her heart to direct her to his location. Her heart could navigate its owner. She went deeper until she found someone. A body who was kneeling before the sun at the edges of a cliff. Damiana got closer and recognized the shape as Jacinda, her lioness friend. She had her fingers tangled together while her forehead was rested against it, she was murmuring some words, presumably praying. Damian wanted to go to her, to wrap her arms tightly around her and tell her she was coming back, and this time, she was there to stay. But she was froze when she saw Arien getting closer to Jacinda._

_Damiana hid behind a tree. Her heart went wild, familiar fire burned her face and her feet went frozen to its spot. Her heart was happy to have seen its beloved again, but it was making it hard for Damiana to think properly. She was afraid that any moment, they would hear the beat of her heart. She had run all the way there, and then she would stop merely a few steps from him. How was he able to do that to her? To give her the strength to run thousand miles for him, unable her from taking a single step again?_

_"What are you telling my father?" Arien's heavenly voice reached her ears._

_Damiana forced her body to move, she slowly peeked at the scene in front of her._

_Upon hearing Arein's voice, Jacinda stood up and turned to him. "Nothing."_

_"But I think my father would disagree."_

_Jacinda kept quiet._

_"I guess I'll have to ask him myself." He smiled at her._

_"Wait!" Arien stopped. "I...was...I..."_

_"You were praying the lord of heaven to give you a child."_

_Jacinda blushed and looked down in shame. Arien chuckled and continued. "It's okay my Jacinda. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Bearing a child is a holy task. You'd be raising a God's creation in your being."_

_Her head was still down. She was playing with the phoenix's artifact between her fingers. "Then...would he...grand my wish?"_

_"He would."_

_"Did the lord of heaven tell you that?"_

_"No, he didn't."_

_Jacinda gave him a sad look. Tears started to drop on her face, but she didn't sob or made a face. She just stared at him with eyes full of sorrow._

_Arien reached a hand to clean her tears. "Don't cry my beautiful Jacinda."_

_"I'm sorry my lord. It's not on purpose _."_

_Arien shushed her, cupped her face between his hands and placed a kiss on her forehead. "My father has heard you, so did I. But your wish will be granted, the lord of heaven didn't say it, but his son did."_

_Jacinda just looked confused._

_Arien smiled again, took her hand and turned to look at the sun. "Father, this is the same lioness, who was blessed by you. I gave her the heart of Phoenix. This woman is the one I trust with the phoenix. She has a heart warmer than any fire and is able to control the magic within. I gave her the heart of phoenix, because she would protect her people with the passion in her heart that is warmer than any fire. She is the guardian of south and the mother of earth." He turned to look at her. "And soon to be the mother of my children."_

_Damiana's heart froze at the words she just heard. She couldn't feel any heat in her blood anymore. She just heard the words, she desperately wanted to hear from him, from her beloved when she was burning her lunges to get to him. She wanted to hear that voice say those stuff. She got what she wanted. She heard the words, but why wasn't her heart warm anymore? Where did her fire go again? Why did it leave her again? Why was it gone one more time? Why all of a sudden her body felt cold to her core?_

_"Jacinda, my pretty flower, a day hasn't ended before I thanked my father for giving you to the world, to me. People will remember your kind heart for ages, they will praise your brave soul and speak of your beauty."_

_Damiana felt cold, she was freezing. Her hold got tighter around the spear, but it was in the wrong spot, the sharp edges, as blood started to drip from within her fingers. Her heat was leaving her body like the stream of blood that was pouring out of her hand. What was wrong with her? Wasn't that exactly what she wished to hear from him?_

_"I want you to be a fighter for me, to protect my people. I want you to be a prayer of mine, to always speak your heart to me. I want you to be a lover for me, to live a thousand lives with me. I want you to be the mother of my children, to share my blood with your."_

_Wouldn't Damiana be all of those for him? Didn't she promise to be his sword, his friend, his woman, the mother of his people, without even needing Arien to tell her? Wouldn't she sacrifice a nation, a world for him? Wouldn't she run for his call till breathing became poison to her lunges? Wouldn't she sell her soul to the demon one more time for him? Wouldn't she tolerate a thousand years of hunger for him? Just for him? Wouldn't she?_

_"No matter where I live, no matter who I am. Where ever you are, my heart would be there too. Whoever you are, my heart would know you too. Because where ever you would be, my paradise would be there too. Whoever you would be, my heaven would be you, forever."_

_Forever._

_Damiana couldn't even kill herself anymore. Whichever world she would live again, her beloved would belong to another person. Arien would always chose Jacinda over her. Damiana was willing to do anything for him, without even being asked, and all she wanted in return, was her heaven._

_Blood was still dripping from her hand. She let it run. What use did it have anyway? Her heat, was confessing his love, her fire was gifted to his beloved. She let the warm blood pour out of her system. It was the warmth of her love leaving her again._

_"I love you, my beautiful lioness." Arien leaned down and planted a kiss on Jacinda's lips._

_It was such a bitter-sweet scene to watch. Arien's speak tasted even sweeter than Damiana ever imagined. So sweet, she could taste the words, that if she closed her eyes, he would be next to her, whispering them to her ears with the same passion. So sweet, but at the same time so bitter. Because she couldn't tear her eyes from them , because no mater what, Arien's stare would always be fixated on Jacinda's, not hers._

_She has finally heard them. Heard Arien's confession. But she hated those words. She has hated the promises she had made. She resented every single second she spent on running to him. She abhorred all the beats her heart wasted over thinking about him. She hated the things she was willing to do for him.  
_

_Why was she so stupid? Why couldn't she learn from her lessons? Why did she made the same mistake again? Why did she return to the place that burned her into ashes in the first place? What was she hoping to get there? How stupid she could be to believe the son of heaven had faith in her, how miserable could she be to have killed the people, who had fought side by side with her? Did she left her tribe, her people, her fire, for...him?_

_Panther or human, Damiana could never get her share of happiness. The demon snake had warned her of that. How could she leave that snake behind? When Arien and the lioness built a tribe for themselves, when Damiana was burning from the inside, the demon snake was the one who came to her rescue, it was the one who gave her the fire. The phoenix was hers first, but then it was sitting on Jacinda's neck. Damiana didn't even know who to blame. Arien, for making her miserable, or Jacinda for stealing her fire? She didn't know anymore, her heart wasn't beating to let her think at all._

_Drops of rain started to pour on the ground. The sun was up in the sky merely minutes ago, but then it started raining._

_Arien opened his arms toward the sky and said. "Jacinda, you see this? It's the lord's amiability!  He's dropping his generosity on Earth. He's happy with us. Long live the heavens."_

_"Long live the heavens!" Jacinda shouted with laughter. They both started laughing and dancing under the rain with happiness._

_Damiana watched them not far away. Rain washed her blood, dropped cold tears on her. It wasn't lord's kindness. The sky was crying for her, she knew it. The lord of heaven was trying to soothe her wounds, but her wounds weren't on her body. They were scars on her soul, they were the ripped flesh and vein of her heart, her lost nature._

_Cold rain fell drop by drop on her body, but she wasn't freezing anymore. There was a hell inside her, heating hellfire to her core._

_She looked at Arien, beloved, her everything and the first thing that came to her mind , was how she liked the sound of his laughter . She wanted to hate him, but it hurt. She wanted to keep loving, but it hurt even more. It was such a big sorrow, whether he was there or not._

_Damiana looked at him and saw a moon. Arien was just like a moon whom she could never reach. Her bright moon..._

_She made an oath then. If she couldn't have him in that life, then she would end that world to be with him in a new one._

_***********_

 

Damian bolted upward. He was panting, breathing was difficult for him. His body was soaked with sweats. But mostly, he couldn't take a proper breath. His throat was sore, his lunges hurt and his mouth was dry. He could hear the sound of every painful inhale he took.

Water...he needed water.

He pushed the blanket aside and stumbled his way outside. He almost tripped over, his legs were shaking, but he managed to get his footing under control long enough to reach the bucket of water. He grabbed the pottery bowl, filled it and drank the whole water. His throat was burning, like he has run for miles. He dropped the bowl down and started panting again. His body heat had increased, he was still sweating. He grabbed the bucket and poured the remained water over his head. Cold water felt like a slap to his face and seemed to be fully waking him up from the dream he was seeing. He was slowly coming back to the world of reality, breathing was coming easy again. He was getting conscious. The cold liquid was a shock to his system, but he still felt like he has been running for a long time, with the woman in his dream. He could feel her head spinning and getting heavy because of the rush of blood there. He could feel the sting of her wound, her pain, her fire. Damn it, it wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare.

He has been seeing them a lot lately. Damian blamed Ra's for it. That old man just wouldn't shut up about the panther tribe, the demon snake and the female panther herself. His obsession with that myth was sickening Damian. He has been having nightmares about them, he couldn't exactly remember them, but the effect was quite intense. Last night, he saw glimpse of a woman running like mad, a spear, rain, blood, laughter and that was it. But in the morning he was a mess, he always would be.

Damian sat on the ground, put his hands on his knees and rested his head on the column behind him. Maybe it was for the better good that he didn't remember most of the nightmares. It indicated that his body was fighting over to forget, to preserve his mind off of getting fucking screwed. If the dreams continued with the same intensity, then people were going to assume him crazy. And by people, he meant Ra's, Cassandra and that little prince who was trying to approach him subtly.

The prince slowly crept closer to him, like he didn't want to disturb Damian of the freshly chance at having a lull moment. Richard must have seen him struggling to fully awake from the nightmare, but Damian couldn't bring himself to give a single crap as to stand up and bow to him. At that moment, he just wanted to be left alone with his himself, so that he could get to grips with his wandering thoughts.

He needed to get his shit together if he wanted to function for yet another day. Scratch that, he didn't even _**want**_ to shift from his state on the ground, let alone standing up. But it wasn't like he had any other option at hand. Th concept of _want_ wasn't of liberty there, or else Damian wouldn't have been there. It was the king's demand and his only, on other thing could be chosen. Like how he didn't have a saying when king Bruce insulted his abilities by arranging him as an ordinary soldier, or when he accused him of an attempt at assassination, in which, he was the one who had saved the life of the said king in the end, he still had no choice. So, when king Bruce positioned him as his son's guard, he had to accept that without further due. Damian didn't want to be there, but he didn't have the option to refuse either.

He thought that after the stunt he pulled on the coronation day, the king's trust issue problem would be eliminated, especially since his own son had seen in in action too, but he was so very wrong. The knot in the king's head was more complicated than anything that could be solved by a rescue set up.

On the coronation day, Damian saw the servant pouring an obscure portion in his drink, and he immediately recognized the man as one of the league's assassins. Only Ra's thugs had that kind of scars on their bodies, the misshaped lines that could only be identified as the league's symbol. That mark on the servant's hand was quite hard to analyze if you weren't familiar with the league's style, but Damian knew better. The brilliant plan gloom on his mind as quick as the liquid, which was being dripped to the drink. Damian presumed, if Ra's had organized a murder without bothering to fill him in, then he had to accept the uninvited interference he would receive from his little fire priest.

Damian decided to bring forth a rescue mission, so that he could save the king's life and prove his loyalty that way. He was quite positive that the assassin would go to the auto emergency exit plan and chew the venom Damian knew they kept in their belts for situations like that. The venom was a solid being, which was consisted of a good portion of peach and apple seeds with a poisonous plant, called elephant ear.(*) The substances might have sounded harmless or utterly ridiculous for a toxin, but it wouldn't lessen anything from the expanse of its fatality. Damian had learned it the hard way not to underestimate poisonous elements. He had to witness people getting various poisons tested on them before his own eyes, watching the victims literally suffocating to death, vomiting blood, their muscles beginning to spasm, suffering from convulsion and dying within minutes.

Damian wasn't kidding when he told the king about the fashion of the dark shadows that night in the woods. They truly test their poisons on the misfortune strays of Gotham. The venom, which was used by the arrested assassin, was design for those kind of situation. It would swell the mouth and tongue instantly, which would result in fatal breath block or disability to talk. It would work on their favor either way, that was what Damian thought too.

But then, prince Luthor's guard would kill one fucking assassin,which had slipped Damian's sight, and become the hero of the story. That dead soldier was Ra's back up plan, he must have anticipated Damian's interference and arranged another soldier there to finish the job. But came to think of it, perhaps the whole concept of Damian catching the assassin red handed must have been Al Ghul's plan all along. Maybe he simply had organized a murder, so that his fire priest could get the position he wanted in the palace.

Damian sighed deeply and put his head between his hands. Those were all tiring thoughts and it was still late night. He needed to rest if he wanted to function thoroughly when commander Wilson came knocking at his door for early morning sword practice.

"Are you alright?" Finally the little prince decided to announce his presence.

Damian reluctantly pushed his head to with a set of deep blue hues in front of him. He moved to stand up, but was stopped by the prince.

"No, you don't need to." Richard sat himself beside him. "I just came to see if you were okay. I heard some noises and came to check it out, then found you here."

Damian retreated to his previous position on the ground. "Your highness, I shouldn't be telling you this, but it's not the wisest decision to walk in an open area in the middle of the night like this."

"But I heard someone running. I just came to see who it was."

Damian sighed and rested his head on the column again. "You highness, you shouldn't be checking every single noise you hear. It's dangerous. It could be anyone, what if it wasn't me who you'd found? What if I was a murder or a kidnapper?"

"The only people who come to this place are Alfred, commander Wilson, counselor Gordon, my father, some servants, and you."

Damian closed his eyes. That kid was either stupid or was simply ignoring his point. "Your highness, we're in the middle of the woods, quite far from the palace, with only one guy as your guard and apparently a handful of your father's enemies at our trails. Please and by all means, come to Mr. Pennyworth or me next time you hear strange noises."

"I'm not a kid Damian. I can tell the difference between some trying to sneak in to kill me, or sounds of rushed stumbled footsteps toward the courtyard." Damian turned his head to stare at the little prince who was frowning openly then. "I'm no moron. I know what to do in these kind of situations. I've barely survived one recently. You think I wouldn't be caution next time around?"

"'Apologies, your highness." It was too early for that kind of shit, Damian thought bitterly with him himself. He would never get the deal of those royal families. One moment they were like _'Hey buddy, call me John, not royal highness. we're pals'_ , but then you couldn't dare to criticize their strength or intelligence even the slightest, because they would like _'How dare you disrespect the king. You see me lesser than yourself, you ignorant piece of crap?'_. Those royal folks always wanted to be treated just as friendly as others, to laugh, joke around and talk sincerely with others, but when it boiled down to joking and laughing at the said royal guy, or saying whatever that was on their minds, beyond the billion compliments and praises, they were the king and royal family and others were common, impure ignorant people.

Damian had done his responsibility, he warned the kid of the consequence of strolling the shack in the late night. If the little prince wanted to argue that it wasn't dangerous, who was Damian to disagree with him? He would simply nod and accept what he had to offer. He didn't have the mood to reason with the kid either way.

"Why are you being like this Damian?" Richard said with a quiet voice, head bowed down, facing his lap. Damian actually had to give it a second look to notice his sad expression. "I thought we were friends."

"I'm not your friend, your highness. I'm merely a guard your father has picked for you, whether out of trust or getting me out of his hair, I don not know. But it was his command and here I am now."

"So, you don't wanna be here?" He still hadn't brought his head up.

He didn't, he really didn't want to be where he was then, but he was stuck there. Damian hadn't come there for comfort or fun, he had a mission to accomplish and a Ra's to please, whose voice would constantly wander through his head. He could barely gather the slight bit of information in the palace with his previous job. What chance did he have in the middle of the woods, in a shack, with a numerable people commuting and a little prince to accompany him? He didn't want to be in the palace, but he didn't ask for living in a shack either.

What should Damian have answered him? Why of course, with lies. It wasn't like he had any other choice. "I do, your highness. I'm here to serve this kingdom after all. I'm here because of my own decisions. My king has positioned me as your guard, so I did as he commanded."

Lying was such an easy task for Damian. It was like he could be anyone he wanted, but no one at the same time. He could be an aggressive warrior for commander Wilson, a clever priest for Ra's, a loyal citizen for his kingdom, an optimistic friend for the little prince. He could be a lover, a hater, an orphan, a lost boy and a lot of things. Damian could be all of them, but who could be him? All of the things he pretended to be? None of them? Just a void shell who would be filled with sham characters? The green eyed boy had never felt so empty of emotions before.

Richard started flexing his fingers, he peeked a glance at Damian and as soon as his big blues caught the green of his, he dropped his stare down on his lap again. The little prince bit his lips, twisted his fingers till they made clicking sounds. He was avoiding eye contact. His body language demonstrated signs of nervousness.

"Are you alright?" Damian asked.

"I...what?" When he looked up, his cheeks and the tip of his nose were red, which he guessed had little to do with the weather condition. It was almost like he was embarrassed to lock eyes with Damian. "Shouldn't that be my line?"

"I'm fine."

Richard raised an eyebrow in confusion, like he didn't believe Damian. "Are you sure?"

"Why would I?"

Richard bit his lips again. At the moment, he looked like those kids who had broken their mother's vase and were trying to get away from being punished, with his flushed face and his concerned facial expression. Damian was starting to get some ideas that why the residents of that palace always cooed the prince and called him pretty. He kind of looked cute with his white sleeping gown and those ultramarine blues that watched him with worry. But of course, Damian's definition of cute was being stupidly funny and pitiful, not in an endearing way. So he didn't give it a second thought.

The little prince awkwardly brought a hand up to rest on Damian's hair and gave it a little ruffle, causing the drops of water to fall on his face and shoulder.

"You kinda had a quick shower in the late night, so"

Damian couldn't hide the irritation in his face. The beads of water, which wet his skin again, were the reminder of the sweats his body was producing just minutes before the prince showed up. He removed the prince's hand away and dried the water off of his skin with his sleeves.

"Bad dream?" Richard asked.

Damian scoffed. "Yeah. Sorry for waking you up, you highness."

"Don't worry, I was already awake."

Damian turned to give him a look. That kid either didn't mind Damian's annoyance, or simply decided to ignore it on purpose, because the green eyed boy for one, was sure that he made clear on his expression that he needed to be alone then.

"And can I ask why?"

Richard gave a shrug. "Don't know. I just can't sleep at nights. It must be a bat thing." Damian wasn't in the mood to laugh at his pun, but he thought the prince's attempt at lightening up the atmosphere was cute too, as far as his own definition of the word 'cute' went.

Richard continued. "You wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay." After a beat he said. "So, tell me. What do you do, when you're feeling down?"

Damian thought about that for a minute. What exactly **_did_** he do when he was angry? He couldn't thing of something, but settled for this one though. "I punch a tree."

Silent.

"I'm not sure that's exactly healthy."

Damian shrugged. "It works, so what does it matter if it's not good?"

Silence agreement.

"Well, what would you do if you couldn't find a tree. Like, if you were in the palace."

"I'd punch a person. Frankly, I like this one better. It's more efficient and that way, I wouldn't have to hurt the jungle. You could break someone's jaw with the proper strike, but you'd have to perform the same amount of strength several times for a tree till it breaks. Especially if it's a thick one."

"Wow. Okay, that was NOT what I expected to hear. Um...what else do you do?"

"What else is there to do?"

"Well, I for instance, when I feel sad or angry, Try going to the stable."

"To hit the animals?"

"What? Oh hell NO!!! Why would _." Richard suddenly sat straight, looking in disbelief at him. "Is there, like, anything you do that doesn't involve punching or hitting stuff?"

"It's practically my job to punch and hit stuff, your highness."

Richard rolled his eyes. "Not the point."

"What _is_ the point?" For some reasons, Damian was kind of enjoying messing with the prince.

Richard stared at him for a good measure of time. "Come on, follow me." He stood and walked toward the shack.

Damian reluctantly stood up and immediately felt the breeze on his wet clothes.

**********

The prince has ordered him to change his clothes and meet him outside of the shack again. He argue that it was late night and that they needed to rest if they wanted to have energy for then day, he even tried bringing Wilson up so that way he could scare the kid a bit, but his efforts was to no vain, the prince would do as he did. Damian convinced the prince to at least put a note on Alfred's door or inform the man of his late night stroll, he didn't want them to accuse Damian of kidnapping the prince if they woke up to find his place empty. Leastwise, the prince counted that rational enough to carry out.

Damian changed his soaked clothes into clean ones and met the prince at the said place. Richard with his new clothes was leaning against the door of the stable. As soon as his eyes caught Damian's, he straightened and motioned for him to come inside.

The stable wasn't all too big, not like the palace's stable, which covered almost a hundred and eighty thousand square feet and had cobbled floors and tile walls. That was the Wayne palace's villa, but no sign of palatial setting could be show anywhere, not even in their stable. Damian didn't expect the king to leave his precious son in a place like that. It was no wonder the kid was having difficultly sleeping at nights, he must have felt quite uncomfortable.

"Whenever I'm sad, these guys would help and give me a festive mood." Richard pointed to the four boxes which contained the horses, but one of them was missing. Damian presumed it belonged to Wilson's horse.

"Riding make you feel better?" Damian took in the three horses.

"Yeah. But it's not just that. I trim them, shoe their hooves, brush their hair, wax their skin, feed them some snakes and I don't know, whatever I could do with a horse."

"Don't you have craftsmen for that?" Damian approached the nearest one to him, which was a reddish brown bay.

"Yeah, but I wanna do it myself. That way, she'd be more comfortable and loyal."

"Which one's yours?" Damian reached a hand up to stroke at his muzzle.

"The last one, the black one. The chestnut one is Alfred's and the one before you is Bruce's."

The king's? Didn't he have his own horse in the palace stable? Why did he had one in the shack too? It made no sense for him to leave his horse in there and walk the rest of the way to the palace. He would ride with his own horse if he wanted to visit his son too.

"Did his majesty lend his own horse to you?" Damian asked.

"Nah, it's...it _was_ actually his when he lived here."

When he...lived there?

Richard came to stand beside him and continued. "It used to be just the three of us here. Me, Bruce and Alfred. But then one day we were summoned to the palace and...well, you know the rest." He dropped his head down and started scratching the animal's chin groove. He didn't sound all that happy from the event.

For a good portion of time, Damian had forgotten about the fact that it was the prince of Gotham before him, not just a boy with easy smiles and joyous attitude.

"Is this where the king has been living all along, away from his royal region?"

"Not his whole life. At least for as long as he had me, I guess."

Which meant that the king had been living there for almost ten years.

After a moment, Damian asked. "Did you know?"

"That he was the king Thomas's son? Yeah, I did."

"Then, why didn't you live in the palace?"

Richard gave a shrug. "Don't know. Bruce said that we needed to keep that a secret and I didn't ask. But we occasionally visited there. I'm not sure where Bruce would headed, but I for one used to go to the Wayne library."

The horse snickered and called for attention.

Richard looked at the green eyed boy and smiled. "He likes you."

"Then I guess he's not so loyal to his owner after all."

Richard chuckled and moved to open the horse's box. "Oh, trust me. He was one hell of an animal to tame." He motioned for Damian to come inside. "He wouldn't allow a single human being to come near him. His previous owner was even willing to give him for free. It was a miracle they could hold him for as long as they did." He chattered while he had his back to Damian, seeming to be looking for something. "Bruce was the only one who was allowed to ride him. It took him years to get used to me and Alfred."

Damian entered and looked at the aforesaid horse. "He seems pretty fine to me."

"Yeah, that's what I've been wondering about too." Richard came beside him and offered a brush. Damian eyed the stuff, he was hesitate to take it. He didn't even know what he was debating about. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it belonged to Bruce's horse. Oh, hell no, he cursed himself. He wasn't going to go to that zone of thought anymore. That was just a stupid brush, what harm could it possibly do? Sometimes, he just looked too deep in to the matters.

He grabbed the brush and approached the said animal. After what Richard has said, he kind of wanted to test the horse's limits, to see how far he could endure Damian before his instincts kicked in and he snapped.

Damian slowly brought a hand up to stoke his black hair. The animal still hadn't made any noise, which was as much allowance as Damian could get from him. He started brushing his dark mane.

"He's name is Ace." Richard stood next to him.

Damian hummed. The horse had a white pattern on his muzzle, the name suited him well.

"Mine's Robin."

Damian turned to give the prince a look. "You chose a bird's name for a mare?"

"Uh, yes. So? Robin's a human name too."

Damian arched a disbelief eyebrow. "But...a mare?"

The blue eyed boy gave a simple shrug. "I like Robin." It was a good thing he didn't get to chose Bruce's horse, or else it would have probably been **_unicorn_** . He totally could imagine that.

Comfortable silent stretched between them, until Richard decided to break it. "Already feeling better, right?"

Damian rolled his eyes at him.

Richard had a smug look on his face. "Told you they'd make you feel better."

"Yes, and you also _told_ me that Ace was a feral horse, but this is the first time he's seen me and yet, he hasn't done anything aggressive toward me. Horses have quite strong instincts. Whenever they feel threatened, they would flee from the danger, or stay and fight pretty violently. I'm in a close distance with him, by the records you've said, he must have at least flinched when I touched him."

Richard hummed. "Maybe...he sees Bruce in you."

Damian's hands stopped midway.

The prince took his lack of response as his cue to continue. "Alfred says you look like Bruce. When he was your age that is."

Damian's brow furrowed. Why would he say that? What has he seen in Damian that reminded him of the king? He looked nothing like Bruce. For one, he was tanned and had green eyes as the king had icy blue eyes and pale skin color. Those were the most obvious difference between them. Others were that Damian had a snub nose shape, which surprisingly wasn't broken considering the amount of hits he had received, while Bruce had a Greek nose form. Damian's hard angled eyebrows , which possessed an slit on the right edge, wasn't the same as the bushy furrowed ones Bruce had. Even heir hair style was quite distinct. Although they were both dark haired, Bruce's soft lush hair was nothing like the wild hair of the boy's that would stick to every direction , which no amount of coming would lay them down for long.

Where Damian had sharp features, the king had a calm and collected expression. Damian looked nothing like the handsome face that was Bruce. He was young, true, he still had time to reach that phrase of his life, but there was no resembling between the king of Gotham and him.

"Especially when you scowl like that." Richard's voice him out of his own thoughts.

The green eyed boy glared at the prince. "I see no similarities."

Richard slowly brought a single finger up. Damian kept scowling at him, giving the little prince a warning with his eyes, not dare to do something stupid, but when did the boy ever took him for serious before? Richard hesitantly put his fingers on his brows and traced the lines above his eyes, he was trying to gently soothe the knot in his eyebrows. His movements were careful, applying no pressure to his touched, just the feather like brushes of his index finger on his skin, they had calming effects. Damian let it roam his forehead for as long as they pleased.

"I haven't seen Bruce at his youth, so I can't tell. And you're right. You share much resemblances, but...I don't know." Big blues locked with his green. "I can't help to think Alfred might be right."

Damian lifted his finger out of his face and stubbornly said. "I do not  resemble his majesty." Perhaps that wasn't the wisest thing to say. Being similar to the all mighty king of Gotham was supposed to be an honor, but not for Damian, and he wasn't quite in the mood for playing roles at the time.

Richard gave a chuckle. "Whatever you say."

Damian refrained himself from rolling his eyes again and returned to brushing Ace's mane.

After some minutes, Richard broke the silence with his enthusiastic tone. "Say, Damian. You wanna do something?"

"I'd prefer not to."

Richard just ignored he heard anything. "I just remembered out bet. You owe me four coins now."

"I don't recall such a bet."

"Try harder. Remember the day Bruce was declared the crowned prince, the first day that you came here, remember? You were so disappointed and all, probably were thinking Bruce had brought you here to kill you off." Then laughed at his own witty observation. "Good times.Anyway. We made a bet then."

The first day that he has come to the palace, was the first day that he met Bruce, the same day that he was almost busted by him. Now that he thought about it, he remembered the little secret bet the blue eyed boy had made with him, there in that shack. They said that they would be seeing each other pretty often, and from the smell of it, Damian most likely wasn't going to see the walls of the palace anytime soon as he was stuck with the prince then.

He guessed Richard had won. Frankly, that was what Damian had been hoping for too, considering the situation, but not in the way it turned out. He was imaging staying in the palace with a high ranked position next to the chief when he wished for the prince to win the bet. It wasn't what he had in mind at all. Right then, he was only hearing Ra's voice in his head _'Be careful what you wish for'_ . He understood the concept fully then.

"Oh. But you don't need my money."

Richard huffed dramatically. "You said the same thing back then too."

"And I was right then as well."

"Well, how do feel about doubling the prize for another gambling?"

"As far as I'm concerned, currently I owe you four coins as it its. Why would I want to pay more?"

"Because I've decided to change the rules. Say, I won't take the four coins if you win."

Damian sneered. "And you give me eight coins in return if I succeeded?"

"Yep."

Damian turned to give the kid a look. Richard looked as serious as he could get. Shit, he wasn't joking. Damian couldn't believe the kid was for real.

The sky was slowly getting brighter, which indicated that sunrise was near. Neither Richard nor he had a proper sleep the night before, but yet, there he stood, making gambles with Damian and acted like it wasn't something unusual to do so then. As if they've know each other their whole life. Somehow, that made Damian feel more uncomfortable than the too easy smiles that were received from the prince.

Damian didn't allow his discomfort to be seen on his features. He rolled his eyes and tried to play it cool, he couldn't have a moment of vulnerability because of a ten year old. "Alright, your highness. What you got planned?"

Sometimes, he just forgot Richard was a royal member standing before him. He just had something, Damian couldn't exactly grab his fingers around it, but Richard had a zone around him to effect the people near him, make them feel ordinary, normal and easy. It was such a powerful weapon, to be open to assault effortlessly like that. It scared him more than it tranquil his nerves.

Richard gave him a mischievous grin. "Do you know how to ride?"

**********

 

Soon enough, the saddles were put on the horse's back, bridles were positioned between their teeth, reins ready on their own hands, they rode to the green plain. The landmass they found, was fairly an omission of trees, just the perfect place for a race.

Rays of sunrise was brightening the sky. The orange and red hues were scattered by cloud droplets, coloring the horizon reddish. Damian turned to look at the prince smiling with excitement at him. His ultramarine eyes were brighter in the sunlight, like the absent colors of the sky were hidden in his eyes. Richard held the sky in his eyes, even the sun seemed to notice that, as it was slowly creeping up.

Richard had a challenging look on his face, with the corner of his lips risen upward and eyes shining with mischief. Damian simulated the act, he made sure to pour an intimidating intensity to his stare, just to let the kid know what a dangerous opponent he has chosen for himself.

"Read?" Richard asked.

"I was born ready."

They moved their horses to stand beside each other. Richard on his own black Robin and Damian on Ace, Bruce's horse. Unlike what the prince had told him, He was quite cooperative for a feral horse, especially since it was the first time Damian was riding on his back. He guessed the fondness was mutual.

"Alright, on the count of three, two...ONE."

The reins were pushed abruptly and the horses started galloping. Winds splashed against his face, his back pounced to the pace of Ace, they rode forward with the same speed next to each other. Richard proved to be a pretty decent rider, Damian was having difficulties to change the lanes between them.

Sounds of hooves clicking on the plain field filled the air. Damian pushed the rein harder, opened his arms arms wider to maintain his balance and leaned forward. He created a slight distance between them, but just as he thought he managed to out ride the prince, the kid made a roar and before he could turn his head to take his look, Richard had rode faster and increased the gap between them.

Damian grunted loudly, which caused the prince to laugh, his irritation was amusing to the kid.

When Richard made sure he has won the race, he thrown his arms wide open as he laughed to the rays of sunrise, all the while riding toward the horizon. Damian slowed his pace, he wanted to be angry, but he found he couldn't, because the sound of laughter didn't all belonged to the prince. Damian was laughing too. He was laughing at an over cheerful kid, who despite his young age, managed to defeat Damian without the extra four years of experience. He was laughing at Ace, who didn't act as cooperative as he presumed him to do. He was Bruce's horse after all, He must have had some resemblances to the king to have chosen him as his master after all, and like the owner like the pet, Ace didn't trust Damian to take farther control as he did.

He looked at Richard and laughed at the oddness of his creation. How could someone have two shades of eye color? And two hues, which were quite distinct. How could he leave a person both relaxed and terrified at the same time?

Damian laughed along side the prince, because why wouldn't he have when there a lot of things to chuckle about?

Richard pulled his mare's rein to turn to Damian. "I wanna buy new horseshoes for Robin."

"You gotta wait till the end of the month for my money, your highness."

Richard rolled closer. "So, what about this? I won't get the money and you'll call me by my name?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible, your highness. You've asked me this once, and answer hasn't changed yet."

"So, what if I chose a different name. Will you call me by that?"

"Why do you want to be called anything at all?"

Richard huffed. "Because I don't like it when you keep calling me _'Your highness'_ . It makes me feel all formal and stuff."

Damian just stared at him. The prince wanted to be friends with him. That was his intention from the beginning. The green eyed boy didn't know what to think of it. The only friends he grew to know were his tutors and Ra's. He wasn't sure what the prince expected from him, but he didn't think he was ready to give them to him. Didn't think he had them in hm to do so, ever. Then, what was a one-sided friendship worth?

"Pretty please." Richard pleaded.

Damian sighed. "Alright." He figured if he was going to live, for heaven knew how long, with the prince, then he might as well made it easier for both of them by at least trying to be helpful.

Richard threw his hand up as a sign of victory. He swore that kid was just impossible. "Call me Dick."

The fuck? He wanted to be called Dick? Wasn't there better names than a word, which its alternative meaning wasn't male's sexual organ?

Damian knew he was giving him a weird look, because Richard rolled his eyes and tried defeating the name. "It's actually a nick name for Richard. It doesn't individually means penis."

Okay, Damian hadn't expected to be that forward and talk that bluntly like that. But he had a feeling that was how friends talked to each other, straightforward and somewhat rude. Well then, Richard had passed the first stage of their friendship then.

"So, Dick it is."

"Yep."

"Well, Dick, I..." He cleared his throat. "I wanted to say...thank you...for, you know...this. I feel better now."

If the sun hadn't already risen,  the he would have missed the red colors on Dick's face when he said those words. It was harder than he thought, but the kid deserved that much. He had skipped sleep to make sure Damian was alright. Thanking him was the least he could do for the prince, no matter how annoyed he made Damian feel.

Dick gave a nervous chuckle. "Um...anytime." He pulled the rein's of Robin, grin back on his face. "But I really want those horseshoes." And before Damian could get to grips to what happened, Dick quickly said. "Race you to the shack for ten coins. "Robin snickered and started galloping to the direction of the shack.

The little cheater!

Damian pushed Ace's bridle and rode after him. All the while laughing and having the sensation of happiness deep in his dark heart.

He knew as soon as they would arrive at the villa, Dick would be snatched by his many teachers and Damian would be forced in training with commander Wilson. Damian was quite excited to be taught the proper and professional usage of a Katana, but couldn't help but to linger a bit, because that meant he would be parted from the little trouble maker prince.

"My Robin can fly Damian!" He shouted through the wind and the perturbation. For all his talking and adult behavior, he was just a ten year old kid and needed people his age to play with, or else he would end up gloomy and dark like Damian.

The green eyed boy pushed the rein harder to reach him. His day has started on the wrong page, but if it meant that it would end like this, then Damian wouldn't mind the horrible nightmares anymore.

**********

 

" _Damian." A woman's soft voice reached his ears._

_Flashes of green danced before his eyes._

_He heard the noises of a baby's cry._

_He saw a little boy. "Mama. Why's he so tiny?"_

_Screams of terror came, people were dying in front of him. Swords were risen in the air, crimson blood was painted on the floor. He clenched at his mother's hand tighter._

_"Damian, look who I brought home." The woman's gentle voice came again._

_He saw a tall man talking to his mother. She looked sad. He wanted the tall man gone._

_"Damian. He's your little brother."_

_The sword went through his mother's ribs._

_Tears, he saw tears of thousand souls._

_"You have to protect him."_

_He saw fire, his heart was burning. The men before him burned in fire, in his fire._

_He pouted. He didn't like the new baby, mother loved him better than him._

_"So, he's the one?"_

_His mother put the heart of phoenix on his neck. It was hot and glowing red._

_"Promise that to me, Damian."_

_Green, he saw green, all over his vision. He was scared, the fire was gone._

_And he sank to darkness with the sounds of a lunatic laughter in his head._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) elephant ear IS a poisonous plant, and apple and peach seeds contains cyanide, which would cause a kind of histotoxic hypoxia. Literally, the victim would suffocate from the air they can't breath.
> 
> I'm sorry for the delay, but i hope the chapter was worth the wait. This chapter was actually inspired by one of the comment by Tory-The-Kitten, in which said that they've felt bad for Damian the panther and hoped that Damian got a happy ending. This is for you, because you're great and your lovely comment motivated me to write better. A huge thanks to you, you wonderful user! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading so far. Next chapter happens 3 years later and we're gonna have Jaydick centered this time. Our boys are gonna grow up and slowly find each other ;)
> 
> Let me know your beautiful thoughts. Whatever you say will help me write more of what you guys prefer to read. The plot is the same, but your suggestions would definitely impact the path I've chosen for my chapters, like what happened to this chapter.
> 
> Thank you! (^,^)


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